


Satan is my Best Friend

by Lizz_Mayhem



Category: Original Work
Genre: Deal with a Devil, Friendship, Loneliness, Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-21
Updated: 2018-03-31
Packaged: 2018-09-10 23:14:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 15
Words: 24,272
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8943367
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lizz_Mayhem/pseuds/Lizz_Mayhem
Summary: Matt doesn't seem to care about anything anymore. He's put up with so much for all his life that all he wants at this point is someone to talk to. He's a shy and introverted kid who no one seems to like. People only talk to him when they are forced to, so he doesn't have any friends. His older siblings constantly harass him for being an introvert and his parents are always arguing. There was no escape from his life.At one point, Matt decides to try something out. He waits until everyone is out of the house and begins his work. His plan? Summoning Satan. Does it work? Yeah, it does. But he never expected it to turn out like this.....





	1. What did I do?

At this very moment in time, I sat against the wall, staring up at the tall red guy that stood before me. I hadn't thought that this would actually work. What the hell was I supposed to do now?

If you haven't figured it out yet (although I have no idea why it would take you so long to figure it out), the guy that's standing before me is Satan. Yup. I summoned him. It's a long story as to why I even thought of doing this which I doubt you'd actually want to hear.

Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, Satan is standing right in front of me. He cocked his head to the side and stared at me intently. I wonder what was going through his head. He was probably judging my appearance. (I mean, everyone does. I'm not exactly the hottest or cutest looking guy anyone's ever seen, so really they only reason people stare at me is because of how I dress and stuff.) Or he was trying to figure out what to do with me. What is it that people do when they summon him anyway? Their soul? I can't remember.

Suddenly, Satan spoke.

"You summoned me?" he asked. I nodded, trying my best to hold back any sarcasm that I had. As interesting as that would have been, I was just extremely curious as to where this would go.

Satan scratched the back of his head.

"Why?"

I shrugged. Again, it's a long story as to why I thought of summoning the devil himself and I guess it's pretty stupid of me to not think of something if he actually did appear. Satan stared at me. "There must be some reason." I shrugged again. He growled in response. "Speak dammit!" I jumped and whimpered slightly. Pathetic, I know, but I couldn't help it. Besides, what was I  _ supposed  _ to say to him? Satan sighed. "What is it that you'd like?" I sighed and looked down at the floor.

"A friend, I guess" I mumbled. It was true, I didn't have any friends (I mean, if I did, would I have really tried this?). It would've been nice to have a friend but I doubt Satan would want to be my friend. Who the hell summons Satan so that he can be their friend?! That's outright ridiculous! There's no way Satan would actually-

"A friend?" he asks. "Alright, sure." I look up at him shocked.

"W-What?" I asked. He rolled his eyes.

"You summoned me so I could be your friend, so I will," he said. I stared at him. Was it really that simple? "Of course, there's a price to pay for this." Of course not. How could I have forgotten so easily? I tried remembering what I had to give in exchange.

"Wait...isn't it...my soul?" I asked him. He grinned. What the fuck his teeth are white as fuck. How? Satan held out his hand to me. I had forgotten we had to shake on it. Not that it mattered all that much to me, I mean, I had nothing to lose. I hadn't even realized I was shaking until I reached out for his hand. He laughed. I tried calming myself down and grabbed his hand. He pulled me up to my feet and I nearly ended up falling onto him. Luckily, I caught myself.

"So, you're willing to exchange your soul for a friend?" he asked me. I nodded. "Alright then. The deed is done." We shook hands and suddenly, all of the candles I had placed earlier were blown out. I suddenly felt myself become lighter and I felt Satan let go of my hand. I looked down at myself. Nothing had changed. Not that I expected change, but still. I looked up to see that he was gone. I mentally cursed and walked over to flip the light switch. When I looked around I realized that I would have to clean up before the others got back. I groaned and walked out of the room.

Walking downstairs, I realized just how light I was. I tripped and ended up landing on the ground with a soft thud. I got up, brushed myself off and walked towards the supply closet. I opened it up to see that everything was gone. "What?" I asked aloud. "Fuck..." I closed the door and walked back upstairs. "I'm sure I have something in my closet to clean it all up with. I mean, it can't be that hard to-" I stopped as I stood in my doorway. The mess that was previously there was gone. "Wha-? How-? Meh?"

"You know, you're a bit slow," I heard him say. I looked around to see a pair of red eyes in my closet. I walked over and was about to open it when he said,"Don't." I pulled my hand away. "Kid, listen-"

"Kid?" I asked.

"Well I'm sorry that I don't know your name," he said. Oh yeah. I never did tell him my name, did I? Well, shit.

"O-Oh. S-Sorry. My name's Matt."

"Matt? Alright then. Look, Matt, I can't be seen by anyone else so I'm just going to stay in your closet, ok?" I nodded. "Good. Now, I've gotta go. But you'll know how to reach me." I opened my mouth to say something but the pair of eyes vanished. I stood there, staring at my closet in awe before shrugging.

"Well, at least I have a friend now," I told myself. "Albeit, my new friend is Satan, but whatever." I yawned. Damn, since when was I tired? Without giving it another thought, I crawled into bed and closed my eyes, drifting off to sleep.


	2. And Now Back to Boring Life

I woke up to the sound of rain. I rubbed my eyes and looked out the window. Yeah, it was raining alright which meant I would be stuck here with my family until either the rain died down or until one of them left because they had plans or something.

I laid in bed watching the rain. It always seemed to calm me down whenever I was in a bad mood.  _ I doubt Satan is going to visit me today _ , I thought. Why would he? I mean, in  _ this  _ weather? Even  _ I'm  _ not good enough for that. I shuddered and wrapped my blanket around me, listening as the rain pounded against the window.

About an hour later, I heard a door open and I closed my eyes. My door then opened and there was silence.  _ Why do you always do this?  _ I thought.

I knew who was at the door. I was used to this by now. Footsteps walked over to me and stopped at the edge of my bed. I could almost feel his hand on my shoulder but for some reason, he didn’t do that. He never does.

The silence drags on for a bit before I hear another set of footsteps walking into the room.

"So, when are you ever going to do it?" I hear my sister ask. My brother doesn't reply. My sister sighs and walks over to the bed. "If he wakes up one of these days and you're there just watching him then dad's going to think that  _ we're  _ the weird ones. Why do you even watch him?"

There was no reply. After a few minutes of silence, my sister walks out of the room, defeated. My brother stays and sits on the corner of the bed.

It's a weird habit he has and he knows it but just like any bad habit, he can't stop himself from doing it. Don't ask me why he does it because I don't know and if my  _ sister  _ can't get an answer from him then there is no way  _ I'm  _ going to get an answer from him.

He continues watching me and I resist the urge to pretend to wake up. I had done it once before and that ended disastrously (my sister wasn’t there when it happened though so she thinks our dad doesn’t know about this). Anyway, point is that I seriously _ do not  _ need to go through that again

The house falls silent. I swear I can hear him breathing down my back but he hasn't even moved from his spot.  _ Please go before dad catches you again, _ I thought. Seemingly hearing me, he gets up and walks out of my room, closing the door behind him.

"Well, that was odd," I hear Satan say. I sit up and look over at my closet. The closet door was open and a pair of red eyes stared out.

"How long have you been there?" I ask him, the words barely audible.

"Since you woke up," he replied. "Maybe a little longer than that. I can't remember clearly right now. But geez, what did I just witness?"

"Well, that was my brother, Wade," I told him. "You just witnessed one of his bad habits."

"Bad habit?" Satan asked. "More like weird habit. How long has he been doing that?" I shrugged. I had lost count a long while ago.

Satan muttered something. I was about to ask when he suddenly shut the closet door. I fell back down onto my bed and closed my eyes. I heard footsteps. Lots of footsteps. My door opened and-

"Ah yes, Matt is clearly awake and talking to someone, Jamie," I heard my mom say mockingly.

"I swear I heard him!" my sister insisted. "Isn't that right Wade?" No response from Wade.

"I know this little shit is weird at times, but if you woke me up for  _ this _ -" My father was shushed by my mom. Someone then walked over to me and shook me. I grunted slightly. They shook me again. I grunted again.

"Matt!" my mom yelled (directly into my ear). I flinched and covered my ear.

"Wade, what the hell Wa-" I stopped short when I realized I had said Wade instead of mom.  _ Shit _ , I thought.  _ I'm going to end up getting him caught. _

I opened my eyes and sat up slowly. "Oh, hi mom." She stared at me, then turned her attention over to Wade, whose eyes were red. Had he been crying? No. He hardly ever cries. Well, in front of  _ me  _ anyway. My mom turned back to me and sighed.

"Matt, get dressed," she told me. "I'll be making breakfast soon and we'll be leaving." She stood up and walked out, leading the others with her. I walked over to close my door. That was when  _ he  _ appeared in front of me. I jumped back and let out a small whimper. He stepped past me and threw open my closet door. He turned on the light and Satan was gone. I stared at my father as he turned back to me. He rolled his eyes and mumbled out a faint apology before walking out.

I closed the door and walked into my closet. I slipped on a plain t-shirt, a pair of regular jeans, a black hoodie, and my plain gray converse. I turned off the light and walked out. As I was about to open the door, I heard Satan say,"No goodbye for me?" I jumped and turned around to see him still in my closet.

"Wha-? Wait-? But-? You-?" I struggled to get words out. "YOU WERE IN THERE THE ENTIRE TIME?!"

"What? No," he said. "I'm your friend, not a pervert. Not like I’d be into you anyway. Geez.”

Ow. That hurt. Not sure why it did since I hear that all the time but it did. I wasn’t going to tell him that, though.

“Besides, I'm only in here when the lights are off." I let out a sigh of relief.  _ Thank fuck _ , I thought. "Anyway, do I not get a goodbye?"

"Well, yeah, I guess," I said. "Bye, uh.....S-Satan? I don't know if I'm even allowed to call you that...."

"For now, yeah, you can," he told me. I smiled. "Go before someone walks in on you." I nodded and walked out. I closed the door behind me and made my way downstairs.

I smelled pancakes. _ Probably not for me _ , I thought. My family always ate without me, not that I cared. They hardly ever left enough for me, though, which pissed me off but I couldn't say anything.

I shoved my hands into my pockets and walked into the kitchen. Wade, Jamie, and my dad were already sitting in the dining room, eating. My mom was washing the dishes. I looked around to see no pancakes in sight. Of course not. Cereal it is then. I walked over to the cabinet and pulled out a bowl.

"Matt, I'm sorry there-"

"It's fine mom." I opened the fridge and pulled out the milk. I then made my bowl of cereal. My mom turned to me as I started eating.

"Are you sure you don't want to sit down?" she asked me. I nodded. I never sat down to eat with them. Ever. That's just how it goes. She sighed and walked over to the dining room. I leaned against the counter and continued eating.

_ Wonder where we’re going... _

About half an hour later, when everyone was ready and all of the dishes were washed, we walked out into the pouring rain and got into the car. I opened the trunk of the car and climbed in. I then made myself as comfortable as I could. Don’t ask why I sit in the trunk. Then again, I’m pretty sure you can figure that one out on your own.

I pulled out my phone and plugged in my headphones. I then put them on and pressed play. As the music replaced every sound in the world, I stared out the window and let my mind wander.


	3. Christmas Shopping

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Hey guys! I hope you're enjoying the story so far! Also, have a Merry Christmas! :3

There's always one thing I despise when it comes to the month of December. It isn't Christmas itself. It's actually the shopping. I couldn't care less if my siblings and dad actually cared for me, I still wouldn't get them anything for Christmas. Actually, wait, I would. I’d get them piles of shit and give it to them saying,"When I saw this, I immediately thought of you!" Wouldn't that be funny?

Anyway, right now we were going Christmas shopping. Great. And to make things better, we're shopping on the day before Christmas. Which makes this whole situation  _ even better. _

We walked into the mall and were nearly thrown to the ground by someone trying to rush past us. My dad yelled at them but the person ignored him. We started walking around, trying to see if they could get any last minute gifts for everyone. We walked into one of the stores that wasn't entirely full. I noticed that it was a clothing store. Great. Just what I would want to look at when shopping. Woohoo.

I leaned against one of the racks, careful not to knock it over, and looked down at my phone to make it look like I was doing something. I soon realized that I would have to preoccupy myself with something because we were going to be here for a while. I looked around for any chairs which, thankfully, there was. I sat down and made sure I knew where my family was at. I had to make sure they didn't leave without me. Again. Man, I hate my family sometimes.

An hour later and I was stuck carrying about three bags of clothes that my mom, Jamie, and Wade got. Damn, since when does  _ Wade  _ shop? Then again, since when do I care?

I try to catch up with the others. My dad, finally noticing me struggling with the bags, grabs the heaviest one from me and hands another one to Wade, scolding him for not carrying his own bag. Wade mumbled a response before walking again. Although I  _ detested  _ my dad (to the point where I don’t even want to call him dad but I am forced to), he had a point. Wade was always boasting about how strong he was, so he should've been carrying his bag. But whatever, I’m over it.

I looked around, taking in all of the decorations that were around me. Although it wasn't much, it looked nice. I heard Wade whistle and I turn to see his buddies walking over to us.

_ Fuck. I'm so dead. _

I act like I don't notice them as they walk in front of us.

"Hey Wade!" they all said in unison. There was four of them in total. I heard my dad groan. Wade laughed.

"Hey, what's up?" Wade asked them. They shrugged.

"The ceiling." It took all of my strength not to groan. I disliked whenever people responded to any sort of question like that. It annoys me so much, but I couldn't physically show it. Especially with Wade's friends around. Speaking of which-

"Hey Matt," one of them said. I looked up at him and mumbled a faint, "Hello." My dad muttered something. I knew he was going to scold me for that. Wade slapped me on the back of my head.

"Did you hear him?" he asked me. I shook my head. "Mom's calling you." Wade's friends parted and I walked through them to my mom. I saw Jamie was with her friends too.

Oh great. This is certainly hell.

My mom noticed me and smiled.

"Matt, do you want anything?" she asked me. I swear at that moment everyone turned to me. I shook my head, knowing that if I said yes my dad would never let me live in peace. "You sure?" I nodded again. She looked past me, probably making eye contact with my dad, and turned back to me. "Matt, are you sure you-"

"MATT!" I heard someone shout. We all turned to see a normal looking guy walking over to us. My eyes widened as I realized who it was. Why did he come here?  _ How  _ did he come here? He ran up to me and hugged me. I froze.

Oh, fuck why?  _ Why _ ?

He let go and smiled at me. "What are you doing here dude?"

"I, uh, I-I'm just shopping," I manage to say. "W-With my family and their f-friends." I motioned to everyone watching us. He laughed. "What are you, uh, doing here?"

"Dad told me he wanted me out of the house and I decided to come over here," he said, shrugging.  _ That is the worst lie ever but no one will ever know besides me. _

"Matt?" I heard my mom ask. I turned to her. "Who is he?" She pointed to Satan in disguise.

"Oh, this guy?" I ask, pointing to him. He glares at me. I laugh nervously. "He's my....friend." I hesitated slightly on the last word. I couldn't help it. I'd never said that word when referring to myself and it was going to take getting used to.

"Name's Jason," he said. "You are?"

"His mother," my mom says. "Matt, why did you never tell me you had a friend?"

"Yeah, why didn't you ever tell us," Jamie and Wade said in unison. 'Jason' turned to me.

"You kept it hidden for this long?" he asked me. I glared at him.  _ Damn you. You're not helping. _

"Y-Yeah," I said quietly. Jason laughed.

"Well, regardless, is it alright if I keep Matt company?" he asks my mom. My mom nods.

"Of course Jason!" she said, smiling. She then motions for the others. "Let's go. We still have a lot to look for." The others nod and start walking.

"Should we start walk-"

"Yes," I said. We both start walking. After a few minutes, all of my family members are caught in some sort of conversation. I decide now is the best time to question him, lowering my voice. "What are you doing here?!"

"I didn't want you to look like a loner."

"Well, you didn't have to embarrass me either!" He laughed. "And why  _ now  _ of all times?"

"Well, I mean, I am your friend now, right?"

"Well, yeah, but why now when my siblings had  _ their  _ friends here?!"

"I already told you, Matt. I didn’t want you to look like a loner."

"Yeah but-"

"How long are we gonna be here?" I blinked and thought for a bit.

"Till it closes," I told him, looking down.

"Well, let's make the best of this." I nodded in agreement and tried my best to be optimistic. I gave up five minutes later and Jason laughed. I merely rolled my eyes.

 

 

 


	4. Suspicion

"But why is it that you care? I mean, aren't you _Satan himself_?" He shrugged. I rolled my eyes.

We were now home after three full hours of shopping. Unluckily, my siblings decided to have their friends over and 'Jason' wanted to stay over too. I was currently laying down on my bed and 'Jason' was sitting next to me.

"Just accept it, will you?" he asked. "I mean, honestly." I sighed and stared at him. He stared back. I heard my dad start yelling and I groaned. Jason chuckled.

"Also, how the hell did you even get in that form? Where did you get those clothes?"

"May or may not have stolen them," he said, grinning. I stared at him. "And I can change into any form I want. Just takes up more of my power, though."

"Do you not have clothes?" I asked him. He nodded. "So then why- Wait...It takes up your power?" I immediately felt stupid asking that question. "Or, wait, no..." I stopped and tried to come up with a question that didn't sound entirely stupid. "How much power are you using right now?" Satan thought for a moment.

"Let me put it this way," he said. "I can only stay in this form for about an hour longer before I have to resort going into the closet. And then I would only be able to stay an hour longer before I'd have to go back to hell."

"Oh. That's a lot of power then." He nodded. "I'm sorry about that." He laughed.

"Why are you sorry about that?" he asked me. "Why would _you_ , a mortal being, be sorry for how much power _I_ , an immortal being, am using?" I shrugged.

"Well, I mean, you have a place to run, don't you?" I asked. He nodded. "And you need power for that, right?" He shrugged.

"Not really. It's more of-" The door flew open and Jason and I both turned to see Wade standing in the doorway. He walked over to us and stared at Jason. I noticed his friends standing near the doorway. "May I help you?"

"What are you doing?" Wade asked him. Jason stared at him. "I know your name isn't Jason and I know that you're not even human. So what are you?" Jason and I exchanged glances. Had he heard?

"Look, kid," Jason started. "I have no idea what you're talking about-"

"Oh yes you do," Wade hissed as he took a step towards him. "And don't fucking call me _kid_." Jason held his hands up in defense. "My parents and my sister may be blind but _I'm_ not. What the fuck are you? What the fuck do you want with my brother?"

"Why do you care?" Jason asked. "Even if you were right, why would you care? You've never cared before from what I hear from Matt. Why start now?" Wade glared at him.

"You wouldn't understand," he growled. "Now what the fuck do you want with him?" Jason didn't reply. Instead, he stood up and stared down at Wade. Wade's eyes widened. At that moment I noticed he grew taller. _ Is he going to-? _

"If you want to live, then I suggest you back the fuck off," Jason hissed. Wade took a step back. I heard his friends gasp. I sat up and gently tugged Jason's hand. Jason sat down and Wade backed away.

"Just wait," I heard him say. "I'll find out." He then ran off. I turned to Jason.

"You alright?" I asked him. He shrugged. "You grew taller..." He laughed and turned to me.

"You noticed?" he asked. I nodded. He laughed again and with a wave of his hand, he shut my door. "Cool." He then turned around and faced me. "He's nosy as fuck." I shrugged and laid back down. "Anyway, where were we?"

An hour later, after talking about hell, Jason retreated into my closet and remained there. I sighed and for about thirty minutes we argued about him going back. Eventually, he had to and he left me alone. I rolled over onto my side and stared out the window, contemplating what my life had become.

_ Satan is my friend _ , I reminded myself.  _ I need to get used to calling him that. _

My door suddenly opened and I heard someone walk in. I looked up to see that it was Wade. Great. He sat down on the edge of my bed and stared at me. He looked...mad, I guess. I'm not really sure.

"Matt," he said quietly. "I need you to tell me the truth."

"I swear if this is about Jason-"

"Matt, please." I stared at him. "Why didn't you tell us about him?"

"I didn't need all of you scaring him off," I told him.

"How long-"

"A long while." Really, it's been a day but he didn’t need to know that.

Wade didn't say anything. Instead, he looked down at the floor.

"Do you really think we'd do that?" he asked after a while. I nodded. "Wait a minute...Matt, where is he?"

"He went home."

"Oh." There was silence. I wondered what Wade's friends were doing right now. I knew Jamie's friends were gone and she was probably texting them or on her computer or something. Wade's friends were oddly quiet. There was something else that was odd, too, now that I think about it.

"He has a point, you know," I suddenly said. He turned to me. "Why  _ do  _ you care?" He didn't reply. Instead, he just looked away from me. I waited. I didn't really care how long it would take him, I just wanted an answer. Really, there were a lot of things I wanted answers to but I think this one was the most important thing to clear up first.

"I...don't want to talk about that right now..." he said quietly after a few minutes. He stood up. "I should probably go..." He walked out, closing my door behind me.

_ Yeah, no, that's odd, _ I thought. I rolled over and stared out the window.

The sound of rain is nice. The sound of my dad yelling is not nice. I pulled the pillow over my head and tried to block out the sound of his yelling. What the hell is he yelling about now? I heard stomping and my door flew open. I suddenly felt myself being pulled out of my bed. I dropped the pillow and let out a small yelp. My dad dragged me out of my room and into Wade's. I noticed that his friends were still there but they were huddled in the corner of the room. Wade stood in front of my dad.

"What do you think you're doing?" he asked my dad.

"You care about this piece of shit?" I heard my dad ask Wade. Wade's eyes widened and I felt the gun being pressed against the side of my head. "Do you?" Silence. “All I need to do is pull the trigger, Wade." I looked down.

"Let him go," Wade said.

"Let him go? No."

"I'll tell mom."

"Oh really? Do I look like Jamie to you? I am not threatened by that bitch."

"What about Jason?"

"What about him? Matt's 'friend', is he? I highly fucking doubt that. There may be more going on and I'm going to put a stop to that. And let me tell you, Wade, I did not raise any gay sons, do you hear me?"

"What are you-"

"Don't you _dare_ try to deny me! I will not condone that shit in my house! I swear-"

"Let go of him you fucker!" I was dropped and I heard my dad fall to the floor. I hadn't even realized how hard I was shaking or crying. I felt Jason wrap his arms around me. "It's ok, it's ok. I'm here."

"Did...did you just knock out my dad with a  _ frying pan _ ?" Wade asked. "And...wait, I thought you were  _ home _ ? How the fuck did you get in  _ here _ ?"

"And that's important because?" Jason asked as he wiped my tears. I heard Jamie and my mom run towards us.

"What happened?!" my mom asked.

"Dad tried killing Matt," Wade said as he picked up dad's gun. My mom gasped.

"Oh god no," she said. Jason winced slightly. I gently tugged his sleeve and he set me down. My mom hugged me.

"Should we call the police?" Jamie asked.

"No, not yet," my mom told her. Jason and Wade's friends stared at her. My mom let me go and picked dad up the best she could. "I'll try to handle him on my own." Wade took a step forward.

"Mom, you sure that's-"

"Wade, please," she said. "Hide his gun." Wade nodded and walked into his closet. She turned to Jason.

"Please do not speak of this." Jason nodded. She turned to Wade's friends. "That goes for all of you too." They nodded rapidly. My mom then dragged dad out. Wade walked back out and stared at Jason. Jamie turned to me.

"You alright?" she asked. I nodded.

"Ok, there is  _ no way _ I'm leaving now," Jason said. I looked up at him.

"You're crazy if you really want to stay," I said quietly. He shrugged. "I'm not going to let you." He stared at me. I rolled my eyes and walked out of the room and back into mine. Jason followed me. He closed the door behind him. "What are you doing here?! I thought you-"

"I came back to apologize and I heard what was happening and, well, yeah," he said. I crawled into bed and pulled the covers back up to my chin. Jason sat on the edge of my bed. "You going to take a nap?" I shrugged, remembering that it wasn't night time yet. "Regardless, I'm still staying here." I stared at him. "Don't worry about the power thing. I'll manage to stay here long enough." I nodded and closed my eyes.


	5. Normal?

Everything had gone back to normal, I guess. A week later and school would start back up. I didn’t wanna go back. School was the place I despised the most, the second place being here at home. I wasn't necessarily bullied there. Really, people ignored me. That was fine with me but what wasn't fine was that most of the kids at my school were stuck up and bitchy and whiney and the list goes on and on.

Wade and Jamie fit in just fine. I didn't, but again, everyone ignored me anyway. I'll admit, at times it sucked. I'd watch as some people would make plans with their friends meanwhile I was in the corner by myself. Yeah, it got lonely but what was I going to do about it? I'm an introvert if that wasn't painfully obvious to you. There was no way that I was going to be able to go and make friends. Someone else was going to have to grow a pair and offer to be my friend which by now I have fully accepted isn't happening. It's annoying me but it's also scaring me. That's why I had even summoned Satan in the first place. It's easier, I guess. It sounds stupid, I know. I was surprised when he had accepted my offer, though. Maybe that's saying something...

Speaking of which, where  _ was  _ he? I mean, it is pretty late into the night but still. I sat up and rubbed my head. I looked out the window and saw that it was dark. Judging from the lack of movement, everyone was probably asleep. I slowly climbed out of bed and opened my door. Looking out, I noticed that the light downstairs was on. I crept out and down the stairs. I tripped and fell but ended up missing every step and falling on the ground with a soft thud.

Oh yeah, I forgot I don't have a soul anymore.

I stood up and noticed the light in the kitchen was on.

_ Shit. _

I walked over and saw Wade standing by the counter, eating something. I couldn’t tell what he was eating but it probably wasn’t good. Not that it alarmed me, though. This was just another of Wade’s bad habits.

I suddenly heard a scuttling noise. I stared into the dining room and noticed something moving. My eyes widened as I followed the figure. It crawled along the wall and up onto the ceiling. It's head then twisted and looked at me. I took a step back before I ended up bumping into Wade. I turned around and I saw that he was also staring at the figure. He slowly moved over to the lights and flipped the switch. The figure disappeared. Wade and I stared at each other.

"What was that?" he asked me.

"I don't know," I whispered. He looked up, clearly afraid to turn off the lights. We heard footsteps walking down the stairs and we looked to see that it was Jamie.

"What the heck are you two doing down here?" she asked us.

"I was hungry," Wade replied, moving away from the light switch.

"I heard a noise down here and came to see what it was," I said, shrugging. Jamie rolled her eyes and walked past us.

"Well, the odd thing here is that it's only eight and it's really dark out."

"It's only eight?" I asked. She nodded. How long had I been asleep? I shook my head and walked back upstairs.

_ Fuck, what was that? Am I just tired? Maybe. But Wade also saw it too... _

I trudged into my room and flopped onto my bed. I'm sure my mom was trying to keep my dad knocked out for as long as possible. I don't know why she hasn't divorced him yet. Maybe he's not letting her or maybe it's her fear or something. I don't know.

Where's Satan at?

Wait...

He's probably in hell...

Yeah...

Seems likely.

I pulled the covers over me and wondered how long it would be until someone found out the truth about 'Jason'. Hopefully never. Really, the last thing I need is for my dad to accuse me of being a Satanist (which by now I guess I am but I'm not sure) and try to kill me. Again. For like the hundredth time now. My life is  _ so  _ great, isn't it?

Well, it could be worse.

As I laid there, staring at the ceiling, I realized that I would become bored. I decided, “Fuck it, imma read.” I stood up and walked over to my closet. I opened it up, half hoping to see Satan in there but sadly he wasn't. I grabbed a few books (including some notebooks) and laid back down on my bed. I then opened one up and began reading.

Not even an hour later did my siblings walk into my room. "Where's mom and dad?" they ask me.

Yeah, like  _ I _ was going to know the answer to that question. I literally woke up an hour and a half ago. Shouldn't  _ you  _ know?! Of course, I did not say these things out loud. If I had, I would've gotten smacked in the face, possible by Wade. So instead, I asked them,"They're not here?" They shook their heads. 

Well great. Now, what? Wait...that's actually great! I can do whatever I want for a while and these two won't bother me because they'll be preoccupied with whatever the fuck they're doing.

"Well, what are you going to do?" I ask them. They shrug.

"Stay in bed," they replied in unison. I pointed at the door and they walked out. I went back to my books. I was determined to finish them today and I was not going to let  _ anything  _ stop me.

Unless if Satan decided to show up. 

Then I might stop for a break.

Might.


	6. He's your what now?

Well, I can say that it's been three days and I have not seen my parents or Satan. I couldn't care less, really, since I was almost done with my books. But, it was the simple fact that Wade and Jamie would not leave me alone. They constantly bugged me about how they were hungry or bored or something. Didn't they have  _ lives _ ?!

Anyway, right now Jamie was bugging me about a bug in the bathroom. I told her to go and deal with it herself since Wade didn't want to do deal with it either. She then started whining. Luckily, Wade was fed up with Jamie and dragged her out of my room and into the bathroom. Now I could read in peace.

I read for about another hour or so before I heard a crash downstairs. I looked up and stared at the door, wondering what it is that Jamie broke this time. There was silence for a minute or two before footsteps were heard. I watched as they drew near and my door opened to reveal no one. The footsteps continued, though. I sat not daring to move.

_ What the hell is going on? _

The footsteps came to an abrupt stop. I looked around the room. Nothing. Something in my gut was telling me something was there, though. I set my book down and decided to do something stupid. I slowly looked over the edge of the bed and prepared myself for whatever was under my bed. My heart began beating faster and I decided to just go for it. I looked under to see...nothing. I sat back up and shamed myself for being stupid. I laid down and let out a breath I was holding. That turned into a scream as I felt something fall on top of me.

I looked to see that the same thing that I saw three days ago was what was on top of me. It was a sickly thing to look at; gray skin that somehow felt like blades against mine, black sockets where its eyes should be, long, grimy fingernails- no scratch that- claws and no mouth. The thing was trying to rip me apart, it seemed.

My throat was starting to hurt. I hadn't even realized how loud I was screaming. The next thing I knew, the thing was off of me and on the floor. Wade was over it, hitting it with a baseball bat

"What the fuck is that thing?!" I heard Jamie yell. Wade stopped hitting it. The thing started whimpering and pushed Wade off of them. It then turned to me, whimpering even more. "Matt, what is that?!"

"I-I...I don't..." I wasn't even able to get the words out. Wade stood up, getting his bat ready. The thing backed into a corner of the room, twitching slightly.

"And there you were complaining about a stupid bug," Wade muttered as he backed away slightly and glanced at Jamie. Jamie said nothing. The three of us watched it in silence.

I suddenly realized I was shaking. I tried calming myself but to no avail. The thing moved slightly. Wade raised the bat. It cowered back into the corner.

"What are we going to do now?" Jamie asked. "I mean, are we just going to stay here? What about the-"

"Don't you dare talk about the fucking bug."

"But I have to shower!"

"Then go take it outside! You don't have to kill the damn thing!"

"But what if-"

"Jamie just _go_!" She rolled her eyes and walked off. Wade walked over to me and the thing immediately scampered to the closet. Wade shut the door. "Matt, go get a chair from the kitchen! _Now_!" I immediately bolted from the bed and ran downstairs. I got a chair and tried my best to run with it up the stairs. I guess it wouldn't have been so hard if I still had my soul but oh well.

I ran into the room and handed Wade the chair. He placed it in front of the door and turned to me. "Is that the thing we saw a few days ago on the ceiling?" I nodded. "Fuck. Okay, um...we'll just have to keep it in your closet for now."

"But my clothes-"

"You can just borrow mine."

"But I'm not your size."

"Doesn't matter. At least, for now." I sighed and nodded. "I'll be back, ok?" I nodded again and he walked out.

I stared at the closet door, shuddering. I felt like I would need a shower too. I looked around to see my books scattered all over the floor. I picked them up and set them down on the floor beside me. I then grabbed the book I was reading, glanced one last time at the closet door, and went back to reading.

 

 

I don't remember falling asleep.

I sat up. The book that was on my face fell onto the bed. I ran a hand through my hair and stretched a bit. I glanced over to the closet. It was closed.

There was a soft creak and I glanced at my door to see someone standing at the door. I couldn't tell who it was. I rubbed my eyes and then gasped. The chair! I looked back to my closet to see that the door was now open.

_ I'm so dead... _

I was about to get back up when someone placed a hand on my shoulder. I turned to see Satan standing beside me.

"Satan?" I asked. "Where have you been?" I mentally slapped myself. "I mean- ok, forget I asked that." He didn't say anything. Instead, he let go of me and sighed. I heard a scuttling noise and I froze.

_ Oh, fuck no. _

As if on cue, the thing crawled into the room and sat beside the bed. I stared at it, hoping it wouldn't attack me again.

Satan looked down at them. "Hey Billy," he said as he pet its head. "You ok?" The thing made some sort of noise that sounded close to a yes. Satan turned to me. "Mind explaining why I found him locked up in your closet?"

"That thing-" I stopped myself. "He- Billy, was it?- belongs to you?" Satan nodded.

"He's my pet," he told me. I blinked.

Well shit...I just fucked myself over, didn't I?

I glanced at 'Billy'. He seemed to be staring at me. "You'd better consider yourself lucky that I'm not going to kill you or Wade for hurting Billy." Satan gently rubbed Billy's head. "Luckily, he can heal himself quickly. Just know that he didn't mean to hurt you. He's just playful." I nodded slightly but didn't say anything. How had it not occurred to me that Satan had a pet demon?

Billy placed his chin onto my leg. I pulled the covers over my mouth, just in case of a whimper or a scream escaped. The last thing I needed was Wade walking in on the odd situation. How would I even begin to explain to him how this situation even happened?

Billy looked up at me and raised his hand. I backed away slightly. "Billy, be careful." Billy dropped his hand. I shuffled under the covers. "Matt?"

"Y-Yeah?" I asked, not wanting to look away from Billy.

"You gonna be alright?"

"I don't know." Billy jumped onto my lap. I yelped slightly and Satan grabbed him.

"Sorry for the scare, though. I'm not entirely sure how he got here. I think I might've left the portal open or something."

"P-Please just take him before s-something bad happens to h-him...." Satan nodded.

"Of course. I'll be right back." He got up and walked into my closet. I shuddered and covered myself completely.

The covers were suddenly pulled off and I looked up to see Wade. His eyes were wide.

"What happened?" he asked me. "Where's-"

"I don't know," I told him. "It's gone. I opened the closet to see that it was gone." Wade let go of the covers and sighed.

"Alright. We need to keep an eye out for that thing." I nodded. "I got a hold of mom and dad. They won't be home until next week which means we're going to have to get ourselves to school on time." I groaned.

School. I had forgotten all about it.

"I know that sucks. I don't really want to go back either. We're going to have to, though. Anyway, just...make sure that when you find that thing, you keep it locked up somehow, ok?"

"I-I'll try," I said. Wade nodded and walked out. I sighed and buried my face into my hands. "I'm not going to be able to do that..."

"Of course not," Satan said. I jumped slightly and looked up. "Sorry. Didn't mean to scare you. Again. But I'll make sure that Billy doesn't get out again."

"Please do." He nodded and sat down on my bed.

"How badly did he scare you? He didn't actually tell me."

"Let's not talk about that, ok?" Satan laughed.

"Alright."


	7. Back to School

 

School was back in session and I was not happy about it. Now I get less sleep and I have to deal with being surrounded by a bunch of idiots. The idea alone just makes me want to go and jump off a cliff.

As I walk to school with Jamie and Wade, I look up at the sky to see clouds coming in our direction. It'll probably rain soon, which was good. But I didn't bring an umbrella. Great.

Oh yeah, our parents came back. I don't think that's too important, but still. They just appeared a day ago and they were like,"Hey, we're surprised that the place didn't burn down!" and "Oh my god, you guys didn't die?" Talk about feeling loved, am I right?

Anyway, Wade and Jamie completely bombarded them with questions but got no answers. No surprise there. Eventually, our mom snapped at them and they scrambled. Neither mom nor dad bothered to check on me. No surprise there, either. Did I care? Not really. It happened a lot. So why am I telling you?

...

Actually, wait, why  _ am  _ I telling you?

...

Moving on!

At the moment, we were approaching hell. Actually, no, hell seems like a much nicer place than this. From what Satan tells me, anyway. Then again, he is the leader of hell...Still, I think it would be better than this place.

Anyway, that just meant another semester with no one to talk to as my friend. There was no way Satan would be able to survive all day with me. He would instantly go once realizing just how boring everything was. I don't think his powers would let him stay for long, either. Not that I would  _ want  _ him to stay. I don't need him complaining about this place for me.

As I enter the building, I immediately start walking away from Wade and Jamie towards my usual loner spot. Wade pulled me back and I turned to him.

"What is it?" I asked him, slightly irritated.

"You sure you want to go to wherever it is you go? Alone?" he asked me. I stared at him.

"Uh, yeah. Why?"

"Well, I mean, considering what's happened as of late, you could probably be killed," Jamie said as she looked around for her friends. "And besides, Wade and I could be blamed for not watching you closely so...just stay with us." Wade stared at her for a minute before he turned back to me.

"I'll be fine. It's not like that thing would've followed us here in broad daylight."

"But there are plenty of dark places that thing could hide in. And the sun isn't going to be out all day. It'll be covered up by the clouds or it'll set and then what?" I shrugged. Since I already acquainted myself with Billy, I knew there wasn't much to fear. Although, how was I going to assure Wade that I would be fine? As of late, he's been more protective than ever. It's the weirdest thing.

I heard someone shout. The three of us looked over to see Jamie's friends walking over to us. I start walking away again but Wade grabs me by the collar of my shirt and pulls me closer to them. I groan inwardly and stand beside them. As Jamie starts talking with them, I notice a lot of people staring at us. I pulled my hood farther down and try my best not to give them any attention.

Staring down at my feet, my mind begins to wander. How much longer did I have in this world? Satan would obviously take my soul once I die and I would be bound to hell for the rest of my afterlife. Not that I minded anymore. But I kinda wish it'd be over and done with. I'm not sure how much longer I can stand to live in this world anymore.

"Matt!" I blinked and looked up. Everyone was staring at me.

"What?" I asked them

"Where's Jason?" Wade asked me. My blood ran cold. Fuck...I didn't actually have any excuse or story for him.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Does Jason go here?" Jamie asked. I slowly shook my head. "Then what school does he go to?"

"He, uh, doesn't go to school," I told her.

"So, he's homeschooled?" Wade asked. I nodded. Of course...Why didn't I think of that?

"Still can't believe you had a friend and you kept it from us," I heard Jamie mumbled before turning back to her friends. I only shrugged. Wade didn't say anything.

For the next fifteen minutes, Wade and I are stuck listening to Jamie's conversation. Wade then noticed that his friends were here. He starts walking over to them and I immediately turn to bolt away from them. Wade grabs me by the collar again and drags me with him. I have no choice but to follow.

"Hey, Wade!" I hear from them. He just waves. I try to get out of Wade's grip but to no avail. I was never strong to begin with so why bother trying now? Wade's friends began to ask him why he was dragging me around. Wade didn't reply with a clear answer but the guys didn't press on.

I rubbed the back of my neck. Wade let go of my collar but still held onto me. I was starting to get irritated with the amount of looks people were giving me. Yeah, I get it, I'm always hiding but do you really have to look at me like the world is going to end because I'm out?

Wade seemed to notice this since he looked around and he shot glares at everyone. This caused them to walk away quickly. I look back down at my feet and Wade gently nudges me. I look up to see that his friends were walking and he was going to walk with them. And yet again, I had no choice but to follow them.

Wade looked back and groaned. He then grabbed my arm and started running. I tried running along with him but my legs just couldn't cooperate. I just hoped I was light enough that Wade wouldn't notice. I heard the sound of people shouting behind us and at that moment I knew exactly what was going on. I pushed myself to run, as did Wade's friends.

We eventually stopped to catch our breaths and they walked out towards us. Wade and his friends stood in front of me. I could just imagine what they're going to tell us. Oh, by "they", I mean the populars. Yeah, surprisingly, Jamie and Wade weren't them. These populars were worse than them, though. Much worse. Like, the ones you see in movies worse. In short, they were just assholes. Especially to people like me.

"Well, what do we have here?" their leader asked. "It's pipsqueak and his crew." Wade clenched his fists.

"Ricky," Wade hissed. "What do you want?" Ricky laughed and took a step towards us.

"Oh, nothing in particular," he said. "But, I am curious..." He was now standing directly in front of Wade now and fuck was this guy tall. He grinned and before Wade could say anything, he shoved him aside and took a step towards me. He looked down at me, his face expressionless but his voice cold when he asked me,"Who are you?" I didn't say anything. Really, I couldn't say anything. I just stared at him.

"You leave him alone!" Wade growled as he stood up. Ricky didn't even move or acknowledge him. He just stared at me. I guess he was waiting for me to answer his question.

One of Wade's friends pulled me in the middle of their group and glared at Ricky. "Look, we have our space, you have yours. Could you leave?" Ricky stared at him.

"What makes you think we'll go away that easily?" he asked. "Besides, I haven't seen this one around here and if he's new then, well, we have yet to be introduced." I shuddered, knowing what he meant by that. I had already seen what he had done with the last kid. I really didn't want to go through that.

"He isn't new," Wade said as he stood in front of us again. Ricky's stare turned into a glare.

"Oh really? Then how is it that I haven't seen him until now?"

"That doesn't matter Ricky." Wade glared at him. "Just leave him alone."

"But why? If I didn't know any better, I'd say that you care about this one a little too much. It's unnerving. Why's he so special?" Wade didn't reply immediately. He was probably debating on whether to tell him the truth or not. That was when Jamie appeared.

"What's going on?" she asked us, completely ignoring the fact that Ricky was there. Honestly, I don't even think she cared or was threatened by him in any way. "Wade, since it seems like trouble is following you everywhere today, I'll be taking care of Matt so hand him over."

"You crazy?" he asked her. "Fuck no."

"Wade-"

"No. There's no way I'm handing him over to you. Your crowd is way worse than mine Jamie and you know that." Jamie didn't say anything. Rather, she pointed over at Ricky. Wade glared at her.

"His name's Matt?" Ricky asked. Jamie turned to him.

"Why do you care?" she asked, sounding slightly irritated. Ricky opened his mouth to say something when the bell rang. Wade and Ricky glared at each other before Wade pulled me away. Jamie and their friends followed.

"What the fuck happened just now?" Jamie hissed.

"We accidentally ran into them," Wade replied.

"Wade-"

"Please don't. Let's just get Matt to class and then we'll be on our way."

"Aren't you guys worried you'll get to class late?" I asked them. They rolled their eyes.   
"You could possibly die and you're asking about  _ that _ ?" Wade asked. I shrugged, knowing that deep down I would not care if I died but I led the way to my class without another word.


	8. New Kid

As I take my seat and avoid everyone's stares, I hope that Ricky doesn't try to track me down. To think that Wade and Jamie wouldn't be able to save me from him and it wouldn't even be because they wouldn't want to.

I can hear everyone's whispers and the teacher's footsteps as she walks in. Everyone quiets down and I force myself to look up. I didn't really like this teacher or class but I could tolerate it. The teacher didn't seem to notice the commotion that happened earlier but that was fine. Not like I wanted her to anyway.

"Alright guys," she said, flashing a warm smile. "How was your break?" A lot of kids answered, some yelling out what they did while other kids told each other. She hushed them and smiled. "Sounds like you guys had a good break." The kids nodded and she looked over at me. I looked down at the floor, knowing what she was going to ask. No, I didn't want to talk about my break. Honestly, no one would believe me. "Matt?" I simply shrugged in response. "Nothing new?"

"Ha, loner!" some kid yelled. The other kids laughed. I rolled my eyes. Whatever. They could have made a better insult. The teacher shushed them. Just then, the door opened. Everyone turned to see a guy walk in with a piece of paper in his hands.

"Oh, hello there!" the teacher chirped.

"Hi," the guy said, smiling. I suddenly noticed one of the staff members standing near the door.

"Are you new?" The guy nodded and my eyes widened. "Oh, how wonderful! Why don't you introduce yourself? Here, I'll take that paper from you." She hastily took the paper from him. The guy turned to us, shrugging slightly.

"Uh, hi, I guess?" he said. Some kids laughed. "My name's Jay."

"Where'd you move in from?" the teacher asked.

"England."

"You don't sound British," some girl said.

"I wasn't born in England," he said. "I've only lived there for a year."

"Where were you born?" the teacher asked again. Well, aren't  _ you  _ nosy?

"Oregon." Some kids started whispering things to each other.

"Interesting," the teacher said, smiling. "Well, I'm glad that you're now attending here. Your parents made a good choice." Jay shrugged. "Alright, now let's get you a seat." She turned to me. I internally cursed. "Matt? Do you mind if Jay sits next to you?" Everyone turned to me. I don’t know why she asked, it's not like whatever I said would matter anyway. So I shrugged in response and looked down at the floor. I heard Jay walk over to me and sit down. Everyone began whispering to each other and I rolled my eyes. Great.

"Alright class," the teacher said once again. "We won't be doing much today since it's the first day back." Everyone let out a sigh of relief at this. "But, we will be sharing out what we did over the break." Aaaand you can go fuck yourself. "Now, not everyone at once! Raise your hands, please." A couple of hands shot up instantly.

As everyone began talking about their vacations, I took this as an opportunity to take a good look a Jay. And  _ no _ , I'm  _ not  _ weird. I swear. Jay wore a black beanie and he had blue hair. He wore a red hoodie and some blue jeans. His sneakers were gray. I immediately looked away, making sure to not seem any weirder than I already was. And just in time too.

"Jay?" the teacher asked. "Would you like to share anything?" Jay shrugged slightly.

"Well, I mean, since it wasn't necessarily a break for me...." Jay rubbed the back of his head. "I had gone snowboarding with my friends, went to Tokyo Disneyland, visited Paris, and went dirt bike riding with my family."

"Oh my god, you have a life," I said, my eyes wide. Everyone else laughed. I immediately retreated into my hoodie. I hadn't even realized that it had been deadly quiet. I fucked up so bad.

"He's right, though," some other kid said. Everyone else agreed. Jay chuckled slightly before shrugging.

"That's just my normal life for you."

"Normal life?" I heard someone ask. "What the hell do you consider a vacation?"

"Well, my life is a sort of vacation, I think. Anything that isn't really in school is a vacation to me." Everyone nodded and there were some more whispers. 

Meanwhile, I was hiding in my hoodie, desperately trying to calm myself. I can't ever look at him again, I swear.

After a few minutes, we moved on to what the teacher had done over the break. I buried my face in my hands and wished that Satan would suddenly appear and whisk me away from here. Then I remembered that he would tease me about my current situation and boy oh boy would I end up killing myself. Wait...I'd be stuck with Satan forever, wouldn't I?

I suddenly felt a tap on my shoulder. I tensed slightly but didn't look up. Suddenly felt a smack on my back. I growled as I looked up, knowing exactly who it was. "What the fuck do you want?" I hissed. Everyone gasped. Wade rolled his eyes and handed me a book.

"This yours?" I looked at the book and instantly recognize it as a book I kept at home. I grabbed the book from him and shoved it into my backpack.

"Thanks, I guess," I mutter. "I'm not gonna ask how you had it-"

"It fell when we were running," he said. I rolled my eyes. "You gonna be alright?" I rolled my eyes again.

"You know, if you had left me alone like all those other times, maybe we wouldn't have gotten into that situation."

"Oh what, so I can't worry about you?"

"You never have before. Why start now? Besides, you're getting clingy."

"Clingy? That's bullshit. I'm your brother Matt, not mom."

"Exactly. Shouldn't you be getting back to class, Wade?"

"I don't care about it."

"Wade-"

"What?" I glared at him. Everyone was staring at us now, including the teacher. Great. Just what I wanted.

"You've given the book back. You can go now." Wade stared at me for a moment before gently smacking me in the side of my head.

"Watch yourself, twerp," he said as he walked out. I blinked. Twerp?  _ Twerp _ ?! What kind of nickname was that?! He's never called me anything besides my name, idiot, stupid, or dipshit. So why  _ twerp _ , of all names?

"What was that about?" someone asked. I rolled my eyes and shook my head. The teacher cleared her throat and began talking about something. I sank into my chair and let out a sigh.

Today has gone to complete and total shit, hasn't it? Satan would definitely tease me if he found out about today's events. He probably would somehow find out. He wouldn't ever tell me how. I stared up at the clock. Ten minutes left. Could they go faster, please?

I made sure that my backpack was closed and that I had a good grip on it. The second that bell rang, I would dash out of this class and off a cliff. I would strangle Wade before that, though. If I go down, he goes down with me. I'd be doing him a favor, though. If I killed him, Ricky wouldn't be able to get to him.

I suddenly realized the danger that Jay was in. Ricky would surely go after him once he figured out that there was a new kid here. I mean, he'd go after him instead of me but still. I wasn't sure if I should warn him. I mean, we had just met. And what if Ricky didn't see him? Well, good for him I suppose but what of me?

I sighed and decided not to say anything. As harsh as it was, I didn't think I could care any less at that moment. As the teacher began telling us what we were to expect tomorrow, the bell rang. I immediately jolted up and ran out. I somehow ended up beating the kid that was usually the first one out the door. I ran down the halls, avoiding people left and right. I ran right past Jamie and her friends, who shouted after me but didn't actually stop me.

I ran into my next class and immediately sat down. I set my bag down and rest my head on the table. I hadn't even noticed how hard I was breathing. It felt like I had run a marathon when in reality I had only run a short distance.

_ Fuck, I can’t breathe. _

"Well, that was certainly interesting." I jumped in my seat and looked up to see my teacher standing next to me. "I've never seen you run so fast. What happened?" I shrugged before looking down and wiping a hand over my face. Yeah, I guess I  _ had  _ been running fast. Faster than I would normally run, anyway.

Everyone walked into the room and walked to their seat. The teacher walked up to the front of the class, chuckling. People were giving me weird looks. Some of them looked kind of amused but others just looked shocked. I didn't need them knowing what happened in the last class although I doubt it would stay hidden for long. By lunchtime, everyone would know what happened and I would stay home for the rest of the year.

That was when Jay walked in, holding his paper.

_ Oh you gotta be fucking kidding me. _

"Oh, hello," the teacher said. "You new?" I inwardly groaned and buried my face in my hands. Luckily, he wouldn't have to say anything or sit next to me since there were plenty of empty seats in the class. "Sit anywhere you want Jay." I peeked out to see Jay walk over to me and sit in the only empty seat next to me.

Why?

**Just** **_why_ ** **?**

Of all the seats to choose from...why did you choose the  _ only  _ empty seat next to  _ me _ ?

The teacher went on to talk about some assignment we were going to start on tomorrow. Something having to do with our family members or something like that. I noticed that Jay would glance at me from time to time but I wasn't sure why. As the teacher left us to do whatever, Jay immediately turned to me.

"Matt, was it?" he asked. I swear in that exact moment, everyone, and I mean  _ everyone _ , turned to look at us. I stared at him, nodding slightly. "Cool. Mind if I ask you something?" I shrugged. "Are you shy? Or do you just not like talking?"

I'm socially awkward but both were close enough.

"Don't talk much," I replied, looking away.

"Do you have friends?" he asked.

Aaaand I am definitely jumping off a cliff after school.

Everyone was deadly quiet. I wasn't sure whether or not to tell Jay about "Jason". Nobody else but my family knew of him. Everyone else would definitely just brush it off as lying. Well, unless if word got around about him. I held up a finger to Jay. Why the fuck not?

"Just one?" he asked.

"It's all I need," I told him. He nodded.

"Ok, makes sense," he said. "Is there room for another person?" I shrugged.

"I guess?" I said, not really sure what he meant by that.

"Ok, let me put it this way," he said. "Would you make another friend?" I shrugged.

"I'm not the one to make friends."

"I figured that much. So, if someone else were to suggest being friends, would you take up on the offer?" I blinked. Was he suggesting to be friends? He's crazy.

"Are you asking to be my friend?" I asked.

"Wow, you caught on a lot quicker than I thought you would." I felt my cheeks heat up. "Yeah, to answer your question. I am."

"Look, I'm not exactly the ideal person to be friends with in this school-"

"Doesn't matter. If no one else will be your friend then I will." I stared at him. Was he being serious?

"You're crazy," I told him. Everyone laughed at this. Jay looked around, making everyone immediately stop and turn around. Jay turned back to me. "I guess you can be my friend if you really want to." Jay smiled.

"Great! Now I get to follow you around?"

"What?"

"Oh, apparently, I have all of my classes with you."

You've  _ got  _ to be fucking kidding me right now. This is a fucking joke.

But Jay showed me the piece of paper he held and it turned out that he was right. He had every class with me.

Every.

Single.

One.

As the bell rang for the next class, I knew that I was not going to make it through that day.


	9. Kill Me Now

Please.

Just  _ please. _

I don’t remember when the last time I felt like this was and maybe that’s a good thing. It was currently the end of the day and Jay had, in fact, followed me around to every class and sat next to me in every class  _ except  _ for this one because this class happened to have assigned seats and so he wasn’t able to sit anywhere near me.

By now, everyone knew Jay. Whether they had class with him or he had introduced himself to them or whatever. He seemed to get along with everyone and he had somehow stayed out of sights of Ricky.

I looked up at the clock and practically  _ begged  _ time to go faster. I could not wait to get out of here and jump right off a cliff. Everyone would forget about me and I couldn’t care less. I wouldn’t have to worry about anything or anyone that wasn’t Satan or Billy or anyone else who may be in hell that I haven’t met yet.

I sigh and rest my head on the table.  _ Wonder what Satan’s doing right now.  _ He’s gotta do something other than just run hell, right? Or maybe  _ I’m _ the “something other than just run hell”. I can’t be the only person who’s traded their soul for something, though, right? There’s gotta be others...

_ They probably didn’t ask Satan to be their friend... _

Why did I have to be so weird? Just  _ why _ ? Why couldn’t I be more like Wade or Jamie or something? Or, well, I  _ could  _ but it just seems stupid to me. I run a hand over my face. I truly  _ am  _ an idiot, aren’t I? It’s basically my own fault that I’m this way.

I suddenly hear people packing up and moving around.  _ Oh no, don’t- _

“Hey Matt,” I heard Jay say. I hold back a groan and lift my head to look at him. He was smiling.

“Hey Jay,” I say quietly. Even if I didn’t really like him, it wouldn’t hurt to be nice, right?

“What are you doing?”  _ What does it look like I’m doing? _

“Well, I was thinking.”

“About?”

“Stuff.” Jay gave me an annoyed look.

“Could you be more specific?”

“Dude, we’ve only just met like a few hours ago. You  _ do not  _ want to know what goes on inside my head.”

“It can’t be  _ that _ bad.” The bell rang before I could say anything. Everyone got their stuff and ran out. I immediately bolted towards the front doors. I was suddenly pulled back and for a moment, I panicked. I turned to see that it was Jamie.

“Geez Matt, calm down,” she said. She then started walking, pulling me along with her. “Where’s Wade?”

“Like I would know."

“I thought you would.”  _ Why would  _ I  _ know?  _ “So, you made a new friend today?”  _ You can go fuck yourself while I go jump off a cliff. _

“You sound like mom.” Jamie rolled her eyes and pouted.

“Whatever.”

We got outside and Jamie immediately called Wade. She held onto me so there was no use in me running back home.

I looked around to see if I could find Wade. It takes me a few minutes for me to find him but when I do I nudge Jamie who then called him over. He looked kind of scared at the moment.

“Wade?” Jamie asked. “You alright?”

“I saw it,” he mumbled as he pulled both me and Jamie along. “I fucking saw it.”

“Saw what?” I asked.

“I think you can guess.”

“But how?” Wade simply shook his head and continued walking. Jamie and I exchanged glances. That couldn’t be possible, could it? If it was, did that mean Satan was near?

I suddenly heard someone running towards us.  _ Fuck, please don’t be Jay or Jason. Please don’t be Jay or Jason. Please don’t be-  _ I suddenly feel arms wrap around my legs. I look behind me to see a small boy hugging me. He looks up at me and giggles.

“Wha-?”

“Billy!”  _ Okay no, you’ve got to be fucking kidding me.  _ Billy looks back and I look with him. Jason runs over to us. “Billy come on! Let go of Matt!”

“No!” Billy says as he continues holding onto me.

“Jason?” I hear Jamie and Wade ask. Jason pulls Billy from my legs and picks him up.

“Hey,” he says, grinning.

“What are you doing here?” I ask.

“I was walking by here when Billy ran off. Somehow he found you.”

“Is he your little brother?” Jamie asked. Jason laughed.

“Yeah,” he said. I stared at him.

“Alright, well, it was nice seeing you but we’ve got to go,” Wade said as he grabbed my arm and started walking. Jason followed.

“So, how was school?” he asked me. I rolled my eyes.

“It was alright,” I told him. “Almost got killed.”

“Oh?”

“He also made a new friend,” Jamie added. My eyes widened as Jason turned to me.

“New friend?” he asked.

“Yeah, his name’s Jay.” I turned and glared at Jamie. “He seems cool. I don’t know why he wanted to be Matt’s friend, though.” I could practically feel Jason’s glare right now.

“Well, I’m going to have to meet him,” he said. “Need to make sure he’s worthy of that title.” I turned to him.

“Jason-” He continued glaring. I sighed and look down at the ground.

_ Kill me now… _

_ Please… _

There wasn’t anything else said between me and Jason on the way home. Jamie and Wade asked him about his homeschooling and how it was like being homeschooled. Luckily, he went along with it and there weren’t any problems. Although, I knew that the second he got me alone he would instantly question me about Jay and how it had happened and that could only go so well.

We got home and Jamie invited Jason in. Wade didn’t say anything and I just ignored them. We walked in and we half expected our dad to be there, ready to yell at us. He wasn’t there. I let out a sigh of relief and walked up to my room. Jason followed along with Billy. I opened the door and let them walk in first. Jason set Billy down on my bed and sat down beside him.

“Mind explaining why Billy is a five year old?” I asked.

“He has the mindset of one,” Jason replied, gently patting Billy’s head. I set my stuff down. “Now, about Jay-”

“No, not right now,” I said, cutting him off. “Please.” Jason pouted slightly but nodded. He then turned to Billy and started playing around with him. I rolled my eyes but found myself smiling slightly. The smile quickly faded once I heard footsteps coming to my door. Jason and I both turned to see my dad standing in the doorway. He glared at us.

“What the fuck are  _ you  _ doing here?” he asked him. Jason gasped and covered Billy’s ears.

“Language!” he hissed. My dad rolled his eyes and walked over to us.

“I don’t like what’s going on here,” he growled.

“Which is?” Jason asked, now glaring at him.

“You being around.”

“What’s wrong with that?”

“Everything.”

“Could you be more specific?” My dad punched him. Billy and I gasped. Jason glared at him.

“Get out of my fucking house you little shit,” my dad hissed.

“Go fuck yourself,” Jason growled as he stood up. My dad swung his fist at him. Jason caught it and flipped him onto the ground. Billy gasped and hugged me. I picked him up. Jason ran out of the room, pulling me with him.

“You little fucker, now you’re gonna pay!” my dad yelled as ran after us. We ran downstairs where my mom, Wade, and Jamie were.

“What’s going on?” my mom asked. My dad tackled Jason and they went tumbling down the remainder of the stairs. Billy started crying. I held him close to me.

My dad had landed right on top of Jason. He started punching him and my mom tried to intervene. My dad shoved her to the ground and continued hitting Jason. Wade ran over and shoved him off of Jason. He landed on top of my dad to which my dad shoved Wade off. Jason had run over to me at this point.

“Get back here you little wuss!” my dad yelled. Jason turned and kicked him in the face. My dad fell onto the ground. Jamie ran over and knocked him out with a frying pan. Jason turned back to me and grabbed Billy from me. Billy clung to him, still wailing slightly.

“How did this happen?!” my mom asked. Tears were streaming down her face.

“He punched me because I had brought my little brother here,” Jason told her, scowling. “I guess I’m not welcome here anymore.” He turned to me. “We’ll talk later, ok?” I nodded and he walked out. My mom turned to me.

“I’m sorry,” she said, still crying.

“Don’t apologize for what he did,” I told her as I turned around and walked to my room. I shut my door and slid down the floor.

_ For the love of fuck, just kill me now… _


	10. Aaaand off the cliff I go!

“Get back here!” I heard Ricky shout as I ran down the halls and away from him. 

My life had certainly become harder now that Ricky came into it.

...

That...sounded a lot more romantic than it should have been.

Anyway, thanks to Wade, Ricky won’t stop trying to pound me and it’s getting to the point where I wouldn’t mind exposing Jay to him just to get the attention off of me.

Surprisingly, he doesn’t know about Jay yet. I’m still not sure how. It’s been three months now ( _ three _ months)! Maybe he was purposely trying not to know about anyone else until he had given me the warm welcome I deserved.

Yeah, because  _ that’s _ reassuring.

I could hear him gaining on me and I was dying at this point. I was terribly out of shape and I had only run down a few halls. How I’m even managing to outrun him in the first place is beyond me.

Suddenly, I am pushed to the ground and as I struggle to get up, I notice that it was one of Wade’s friends that had tackled me. He got up carrying me and started running. I looked back to see Wade and his friends fending Ricky off. I let out a groan and hoped that Wade wouldn’t sustain horrible injuries like last time. My dad nearly killed me when he saw the bruises on Wade. It’s a wonder how my mom stopped him in time.

“Matt, don’t tell Jason about this, okay?” I heard Wade’s friend say. I was about to ask him what he meant when I suddenly felt myself being shoved into his gym back. I let out a scream as he zipped the bag up.

_ No no no no no fuck no. _

I struggled slightly before he hit me. I let out a hiss and stopped. I don’t even know how the fuck I fit in his gym bag but whatever. I was  _ definitely  _ going to tell Satan about this.

The bag was lifted and it swung slightly. I tried my best not to suffocate but it was kind of hard since his gym clothes and a can of axe spray were right next to me. Let me tell you, the combination is  _ not _ something you want to smell. It’s utterly horrible.

What felt like an eternity but must’ve been a couple of minutes passed before I heard Wade’s voice.

“Where the fuck is Matt?” he asked.

“Right here.” The bag swung and I moved.

“YOU SHOVED HIM IN YOUR GYM BAG?!”

“Relax! He’s fine.” The bag opened and I took in a breath of fresh air. Wade pulled me out and I ended up falling. He held me up.

“Come on, let’s get out of here,” he said. I nodded. We all walked out of the building. I looked around to make sure Ricky wasn’t somehow following us.

“I hate life,” I muttered as Wade's friends walked off somewhere. I turned to Wade. “Why did you bring this on me?”

“I didn't mean to,” he said quietly as he looked down. I rolled my eyes and sighed. “Look, I didn't think this would end up happening and-”

“Wade, are you fucking blind?!” I asked him. “Have you taken a good look at me? Why would you think that Ricky wouldn't go after me?!” Wade didn't say anything. Instead he walked past me, muttering something to himself. I rolled my eyes and continued walking.

When we got home, I walked right into my room and shut my door. I then let out a groan and dropped onto the bed. “Satan, are you there?” I asked.

“What is it this time?” he asked. I turned my head to see him poke his head out.

“I was chased earlier. And stuffed in a gym bag. And I don’t think I can breathe right right now.”

“You were stuffed inside a gym bag?” I nodded.

“It’s the reason why I can’t breathe. Also, I have a project due soon but I don’t think I care enough to do it.”

“You say that now but you’ll just end up doing it the night before since you actually care about your grades.” I let out a sigh and cast my eyes down at the floor.

“I know.”

“Do you have homework that you need to do now?”

“No  _ mom,  _ I don’t.” Satan rolled his eyes.

“Speaking of which, she seems nice.” I looked up at him. “She seems to be the only sane person in your household.” I nodded slightly. She could be when she wasn’t being controlled by my dad.

Satan walked over to me and sat down beside me. I heard scuttling and I looked over to see Billy sitting beside Satan. “I know Billy’s your pet, but what exactly is he?” I asked Satan.

“He was a dog in his past life.”

“So then why doesn’t he look like a dog?”

“He didn’t like being a dog. And he wasn’t really mine to begin with.” Satan pat Billy’s head and Billy smiled.

“What do you mean?”   


“Billy belonged to someone who had traded their soul for a bigger dick.” I stared at Satan and realized he was being serious. “Yeah, the guy didn’t take good care of Billy either so I took Billy with me. He’s dead now, died last week, I think, and he is now Billy’s new toy.”

“Wow.” I sat up. Glad to know that some other guy had traded his soul for something way more stupid than what I had asked for. Billy suddenly jumped up onto Satan’s lap and laid down. Satan began playing with Billy and I tried my best not to laugh.

After watching Satan play with Billy, I asked him how many other people had exchanged their soul for something and what it was they traded it for. Satan looked less than pleased (to say the least) when I asked him this but he reluctantly answered my question.

Apparently,  _ millions  _ of other people have sold their soul to him (that wasn’t much of a surprise to me) and that most of them had been so stupid to the point where he was hesitant on actually granting them (that also wasn’t a surprise). He would end up doing it, though, since he wouldn’t mind torturing their souls for an eternity. He then began telling me what he did in hell, which was as much as I believed it to be.

That conversation somehow transitioned into comparing my old life to how it was now. Nothing much had changed except for the fact that now I was being terrorized, my siblings were starting to care now and now I had a friend. Satan had pursed his lips when he said that and I had to clarify that I was referring to him. He was still a bit angry about Jay but it wasn’t  _ my  _ fault that he decided to talk to me. I  _ still  _ don’t know why he did. Satan has yet to meet Jay and I couldn’t care less, honestly.

As my mom got home, Satan walked into the closet with Billy and disappeared. I laid down on my bed and waited for her to open my door. That didn’t happen as immediately as I thought it would. I found out why as my door opened and I looked over to see my mom standing in the doorway with Wade, who was holding his phone. My mom smiled warmly.

“Hi Matt,” she said.

“Hey mom,” I said.

“Did Jason visit earlier?” she asked me. I nodded. “That’s good. I just wanted to make sure.” She turned to Wade. “You and I are having a talk later.” She then walked off and Wade stared at me with wide eyes.

“What?” I asked him.

“I fucking  _ knew  _ it,” he muttered.

“Knew what-” Wade walked over to me and picked me up by the shoulders.

“Matt, what did you do?”

“What are you-”

“Jason isn’t human, is he? He’s tricked you, hasn’t he?”

“What the hell are you-”

“Matt, Jason’s a fucking  _ demon _ ! And that monster that attacked you? That’s Billy! How do you not see it?!”

“Wade, have you  _ lost  _ it?” I asked him. He blinked.

“You...you seriously don’t believe me?”

“Wade, you’re claiming that my best friend is demon. Would  _ you  _ believe it if someone told you that about your friends?” He stared at me, not sure what to say. Suddenly, he let go and walked out of the room.

I let out a sigh and ran a hand over my face. He had actually figured it out and now he thinks that he’s tricking me so he had tried telling mom about it. Great. Now he’s totally going to watch me even more now just to see if he could gather any evidence.  **Great.** Because what I really need in my life was more stress.

There was silence for a minute or two before I heard the front door open. I immediately bolted out of bed and grabbed a textbook and a notebook from my backpack. I set them on the bed, grabbed a pencil and acted like I was taking down notes. I could feel my dad’s glare on me as he towered over me. “About time you did your work,” was all he muttered before walking out and slamming the door. I let out a sigh and closed my books before stuffing them into my backpack.

I noticed a paper sticking out and I pulled it out. It looked like a note. My name was written on it. I opened the note. It read:

**Hey Matt!**

**Just wanted to see if you’d ever find this note! It would probably take you a while so imma put the date on here. Anyway, when am I going to meet Jason? I mean, it would only be fair, right?**

**TTYL,**

**Jay~**

I looked at the date that was written and realized that he had stuffed the note into my backpack a week ago. How and when exactly he had done it was beyond me. Why was he so eager in meeting Jason? I’d only ever talked about him twice and both times I hadn’t even said his name.

Wait…

_ How the  _ **_fuck_ ** _ did Jay know his name? _

My eyes widened. Did someone tell him? They must have. Either that or I must’ve talked about him absentmindedly, which I doubt I actually did. So then how-

“Matt?” I heard my mom ask. I turned.

“Yeah?”

“We’re going out to eat. Care to join us?” I was so tempted to say no just so that I could stay home and talk to Satan alone but I knew my dad wouldn’t be so keen on the idea.

“I mean, I  _ guess _ I can go.” She smiled. I stood up, stuffed the note into my backpack and walked out. We walked out the door and into the car where I sat next to Wade and Jamie. My dad then started driving. I sighed and looked up at the roof of the car. Sadly, I couldn’t listen to my music since my dad took away my phone so I was left alone with my thoughts. Or, so I thought.

“Matt?” I heard my mom ask.

“Yeah?” I asked.

“Where does Jason live exactly?”

“I’m not actually sure.”

“What do you mean you’re not sure?” Jamie asked me.

“I’ve never been to his house before.”

“Matt, is Jason, uh, how do I put this...gay?” I notice my dad tensed slightly when she asked that.

“I don’t think so. Why?” Jamie laughed.

“No reason. It just seemed that you two were...close.”

_ Aaaaand off the cliff I go! _

I looked out the window and desperately tried to hide my now red cheeks. Satan was my  _ friend,  _ nothing more. I did not trade my soul for a  _ boyfriend.  _ I doubt Satan would have agreed to  _ that  _ any more than all of the other things he for some reason agreed to. Jamie was now laughing so hard that she couldn’t breathe. My dad was gripping the steering wheel tightly and I knew that the second I was off the car, he would slap me.

“Jamie, enough! Don’t get me to question you about your friend you always talk to on the phone!” Jamie immediately stopped. I let out a sigh and rested my head against the window.

_ I’m  _ definitely  _ jumping off the next cliff I see.... _   
_ And I’m  _ definitely _ not telling Satan the reason as to why I jumped off said cliff... _


	11. Constant Nagging

So, eating didn’t go as horribly as I thought it would. I didn’t run into anyone and my family members refrained from asking anything about Jason which was fine by me.

I took a sip from my drink as I listened to my mom and dad argue about whether Jamie would be able to go out next week. I noticed Wade with his phone in his lap. He had obviously tried to tell mom about “Jason” but what proof did he have? A picture? I doubt he could use it as proof. “Jason” probably just looks like any normal human being and if he doesn’t then my mom will just assume that Wade photoshopped the picture. Why did Wade bother?

“Mom,  _ please _ ,” Jamie begged. “I  _ have  _ to go with them!”

“Just let her,” my dad hissed. “It’s better to have her out of the damn house anyway!”

“No!” my mom said sternly. “Not after what happened last time! You are not going and that’s final!”

“Mom, you can’t do this to me!” Jamie slammed her head down onto the table. Wade stared at her. My dad rolled his eyes.

“Jannette, just  _ let her go _ -”

“ _ No! _ ”

I sighed and slouched a bit in my seat. Was I bored? Yes. Did I want to go back home? Sort of. Did I want Satan to find out what my mom had asked?  _ No. _ It’s best we stay here, right? I hope so.

The argument between my parents continued until my dad slammed his fist onto the table and yelled,“I’ve had enough of this!”  _ Me too, man,  _ I thought. _ Me too. _ Jamie sat back in her seat with her arms crossed and a frown on her face. My mom glared at my dad and I knew that when we got home, she was going to explode. Unless if she couldn’t wait, then she would explode in the car. Point is, she was gonna blow soon.

“You know, you could try to be more considerate towards Jamie, mom,” Wade suddenly said. Everyone turned to him. “And you could try to control your temper, dad. And you.” Wade hit Jamie on her arm. “Stop whining about bullshit, you hear?”

“It’s not-”

“I wasn’t done.”

Something was off. Wade’s never used that tone when talking to mom or dad, which was the first red flag. He’s also never criticized or scolded mom or dad, which was the second red flag. But what  _ really  _ threw me off was his eyes. No, they hadn’t changed color or gone completely black or something like that. Well, ok, they sort of changed color since they seemed darker than before but still, it’s not necessarily that. His pupils were sort of dilated and he was making eye contact with dad. Now, that wouldn’t seem all that bad but once you realize that Wade rarely, if ever, makes eye contact with dad and that his eyes have always looked scared rather than angry, it just seems odd-

“And furthermore,” I heard Wade say. I blinked before realizing that his eyes were on me. I waited for him to say something. “Don’t think that you can get away with everything, because you can’t.”

I tried to look confused, even though I knew exactly what he was talking about. He turned away from me and looked down at his phone again. My dad seemed ready to hit Wade. My mom looked shocked. Jamie just stared at Wade.

“You’ve turned weird now,” she said.

“ _ I’ve _ turned weird?” Wade asked. “And what about Matt?”   
“He’s always been a bit...queer,” my mom said as she shot me a sympathetic look. I noticed my dad cringe. Wade shrugged.

“Well, he  _ has _ gotten a bit weirder,” Jamie said.

“Ah, I don’t care anymore!” my dad hissed as he got up and walked off to the car. My mom sighed and turned to Jamie, giving her a “look at what you’ve done” look. Jamie just glanced down at the floor.

“Let’s go,” my mom said. We nodded and got up. As we cleaned our table, I noticed someone walking in. I gasped and immediately threw my stuff away along with everybody else’s. Everyone stared at me. “Matt-”

“We have to go now!” I hissed as I shoved the three of them towards the exit. The door opened and I made it out.  _ Okay, now I just have to hope that- _

“Matt!” I heard him yell. I started running towards the car. I heard footsteps directly behind me. Just as I reach the car, I feel myself being hugged from behind and swept up. I yelp before looking behind me and staring at him face to face. “Hey Matt!”

“H-Hi Jay,” I say as I try to escape from him. I think he noticed since he only wrapped his arms around me tighter. “C-Could you, uh, l-let go?”

“No,” he said, grinning. “You were ignoring me, weren’t you?”

“W-wha-?”   


“Come on Matt, seriously?” Jay pouted. “Don’t you like me?”

“W-Well, I mean, y-yeah, I do, b-but-”

“Then why do you ignore me? Is it because of Jason? He’s so rude! And to think I wanted to meet him! Matt, how can you be friends with him?” I blinked. I mean, it’s no surprise that Satan  _ would _ be rude but to hear from  _ Jay _ that  _ Jason _ was rude wasn’t something I really wanted to hear from him.

“W-What do you m-mean?”

“He left me a note in my bag telling me not to talk to you.”

_ Fuck, seriously? Dammit Satan. _

“H-He did?” Jay nodded. “O-Oh. Sorry, he’s just l-like that with s-strangers.”

“But why?”

“I-I’m not sure.” Jay sighed a bit and finally let me go. I rubbed my arms and noticed my mom, Wade, and Jamie standing off to a distance. I’m sure they’ll ask about this in the car.

“Well, you’d better tell him that I’m not at all threatened by him and that I will not be leaving any time soon.”

“Ah, o-okay.” Jay ruffled my hair slightly before grinning.

“See you later, mkay?” I nodded slightly before he walked off. I turned around and slammed my head on the trunk. I knew that I was going to have to question Satan thoroughly and that he would not be sorry for his actions.

I got into the car and slammed the car door. My dad glared at me. The others got in and turned to me. “That Jay?” my mom asked me. I nodded. She turned around and nothing else was said. My dad turned to my mom and was about to say something when my mom signaled him not to say anything. He sighed and just started the car.   
  
  


 

“Explain yourself. Now.”

I was currently standing in front of Satan trying to look as intimidating as possible. It wasn’t really working considering that he was currently laying down on my bed, playing with Billy.

“About?”

“You know.”   
“Do I?”

“Don’t be a smartass with me.” He looked up, a curious look on his face.

“But I’m not sure-”

“Don’t give me that excuse.” Satan blinked. I don’t think he was expecting me to react this way to what he had done but I didn’t really care.

“Is it really that serious?”

“Did I really sell my soul to you so that you could be my friend?” He went quiet. Billy looked up, tilting his head. I’m sure he was just as confused as Satan was. To be fair, I was overreacting a bit. Just a bit.

“Why’s he so important?”

“He’s the only human friend I have other than you in disguise.”

“And? Am I not enough?”

“I didn’t  _ ask  _ for him to be my friend! I asked  _ you _ ! I don’t even know why he was attracted to me-”

“He’s gay?”

“What? I don’t know if-” I frowned. Satan grinned. “My mom thinks  _ you’re _ gay.” He frowned. Bad move Matt. Bad move. I just fucked myself over. And to think I had told myself not to mention it.

“She does?”

“How do you not know this?”

“Matt, I’m not a mind reader.” I rolled my eyes.

“You know Jay isn’t going to leave me alone now, right?” Satan shrugged.

“If he’s a persistent little shit than I can be one too.”

“Don’t-”

“Too late.” Satan pat Billy’s head. I sighed and leaned against my closet door.  _ What am I going to do now? _

Billy crawled over to me and sat down in front of me. I gently pat his head. He smiled which creeped me out a bit but I was going to say anything about it.

“You’re lucky Billy likes you.” I nodded. There was silence for a few minutes. I wondered what Satan was thinking about. The sound of birds chirping and kids laughing could be heard outside. I looked out to see some kids playing tag. I was sure Wade and Jamie could relate to them but I certainly couldn’t. “You missed out on a lot of things.” I nodded again, turning to Satan. I heard Billy whimper a bit. He then hugged me. “All because of him.” It didn’t take a genius to figure out who Satan was talking about.

“My dad has never liked me, so, yeah, of course because of him.” Satan looked out, a grim expression on his face.

“I know I’m the devil and everything and I’m supposed to be the worst possible thing out there but I feel like there are  _ way _ worse things than me. Some of those things being people.”

“I have a question.” Satan turned to me. “Does, uh, God exist?” He let out a sigh.

“Let me tell you this: it’s a bit more complex than a simple yes or no answer.”

“Why? Because of different religions?”

“Yeah. They have their own gods and demons and stuff so in order to give a solid yes or no answer, I’d have to talk about the other religions which will take us hours to talk about, maybe more considering that I’m lazy.”

“Why?”

“It’s complicated, Matt. And, well, you’re an atheist.”

“You’re going to have to explain it to me because otherwise I’ll be lost.” Satan sighed.

“Alright. To put it into simple terms, because your family is Christian, they believe in God and of course there’s me, the devil, Satan, whatever. Because you’re technically Christian too, you can summon and see me. If you were of any other religion that isn’t Catholic or something similar, you probably wouldn’t be able to see me, but rather, something similar, but still not me.”

“Right.”

“So, I guess you could say that if God didn’t exist, I wouldn’t be here. So, technically, yes, he does exist.”

“Right, okay. But, if he  _ does _ exist, why does he help certain people?”

“Oh, that’s easy. God has favorites. He doesn’t like to admit it though.”

“Uhuh."

“And since your family’s Christian I guess makes it better for him? I’m not entirely sure, I can’t remember.”

“You’ve talked to him?”

“There are some people that I didn’t want in hell so I tried bargaining with him.”

“Did it work?”

“Nope.” I laughed. “You can make a deal with the devil but you can’t make a deal with God. You just get a lecture.”

“At least you tried.” He nodded. “So, is he the only God that has favorites?”

“I think so, yeah. I’m not sure though. All I can say is that the one I know has favorites.”

“Mhm. So basically, if you’re not a favorite, he just doesn’t help you out?”

“Yeah.”

“Wow. What a dick.” Satan laughed.

“I know right? I mean, honestly.” I smiled slightly and sat down on my bed. “So what now?” I shrugged. I couldn’t really remember what we were talking about before this. Billy jumped onto my lap and laid down. I laughed slightly. “You know what I just realized?” I turned to him. “Someone could’ve been listening to our conversation.”

“It’s fine.”

“Is it though?” I nodded.

“If they kill me, I’m fine, right? Since you have my soul?” Satan nodded.

“Pretty much. Unless if you piss me off, which at this point, Jay is pretty close to.”

“Really dude?”

“The fucker needs to back off.”

“Overprotective much?”

“What? He’s weird!”

“Satan.”

“What?!” I sighed and shook my head. As awkward as this was, I found myself smiling. “Why are you smiling?”

“Don’t worry about it.” Satan narrowed his eyes.

“Why?”

“I said don’t worry about it.”

“I might worry about that.”

“Don’t.”

“Matt.”

“What?”

“The smiling.”

“What? I can’t smile?”

“You did not just-”

“Then stop with the nagging Satan!”

“Oh, you tell that to  _ me _ ? What about Jay?”

“Satan.”

“I’m not going to let it go!”

And he didn’t. But I ignored him from that point. For the rest of the day, I just played with Billy. I’ll admit, I was warming up to Billy. I’m sure it was an odd thing for Satan to watch, though, considering that I had never played with a dog so it was really just me messing around a bit with Billy. I eventually got the idea to play fetch. Sort of, not really since I couldn’t throw well and I didn’t want anyone knowing that they were here. Unless if they had heard our conversation but I had already stated what I thought about that earlier.

I got up and looked for a ball. I found one in my closet and held it up. Billy immediately jumped down from the bed and reached for the ball. I held it up as high as I could and Billy outstretched his arms. I felt kinda bad so I dropped the ball and I watched as Billy bounced it.

“Why the ball?” I heard Satan ask. I shrugged.

“He was once a dog, right?” I heard Satan sigh. I looked up and saw him watching Billy, who had placed the ball there and was sitting in front of me, waiting. “Want me to drop it again?” Billy nodded. I picked up the ball and dropped it. Billy bounced it again. I laughed slightly. Billy continued playing with the ball.

Something about watching Billy playing with the ball made me feel...warm inside. Like a fuzzy type of warm. I wasn’t sure what to make of the feeling other than to associate it with happiness. Sure, I’ve been happy before but it’s never felt like this. If  _ this _ is what happiness feels like, then I can understand why people would want to feel like this everyday.

About an hour later, Satan said that he had to go back to hell, which I felt kinda sad about. I didn’t tell him that of course and I tried not to show it. I gently pat Billy’s head and he smiled. Again, still kinda creepy but I’d get used to it. They then left and I was left to lay down on my bed and contemplate life.

Later on, I found out that no one had heard our conversation, which was a good thing. I’m pretty sure Wade still believed that Jason was Satan but he wouldn’t make eye contact with me at all. He would talk about something to me but I wouldn’t really be paying attention. Eventually, everyone had gone to sleep while I was laying in bed, staring up at the ceiling.

_ Just sleep Matt,  _ I thought to myself.  _ Just go to sleep.  _ That of course wasn’t going to help. It never really did, but I continued trying. The bad thing was that I wasn’t tired but I knew that if I didn’t go to bed, I would regret it in the morning.

I suddenly noticed that my hand was glowing. I examined it closely and noticed that the glowing was in the shape of a pentagram. “Wha-?”

“If you ever need to call me or something.” I looked up to see a familiar pair of glowing red eyes in my closet.

“How do I-”

“I’ll tell you more tomorrow, ok? Just know that you have that now.” I nodded. “Night Matt."

“Night Satan.”


	12. Safe Place

I found myself running through some sort of maze. I wasn’t sure how I had gotten there or why I was even there. My legs were throbbing but something told me I couldn’t stop running.

Everything around me was a dull gray; the walls, the floor, the sky. My vision would blur now and then from constantly staring at the walls. At one point my vision was so bad that I closed my eyes and braced myself.

I was breathing heavily and I felt extremely dizzy. I’m seriously out of shape.

At some point, I heard footsteps. At first, I thought they were mine. Then I realized that I tend to shuffle my feet whenever I run or walk and the footsteps didn’t sound like shuffling. I opened my eyes and saw nothing but gray. I glanced behind me and my heart nearly stopped.

I saw my dad running after me with a black trident in his hands. His eyes were red and he seemed to be chanting something. I immediately bolted. I heard him laugh and his footsteps got louder. Suddenly, the ground shook and I saw him rise above me. He then stabbed me in the back with his trident and held me up to his face. He grinned.

The pain in my back was nothing like I’d ever experience so I wouldn’t be able to describe it. I just know it hurt a lot. Pretty much to the point where I was screaming. My dad just laughed and threw me onto the ground. My blood splattered everywhere. It was like paint. I started coughing and I ended up coughing blood. I let out a wail as I felt him stab me again. He then started dragging me across the ground. I screamed even more. He just laughed.

Eventually, he stopped dragging me. I was nearly unconscious at that point. I heard him start chanting again and he propped me up against the wall. The only color I could see now was red.

I suddenly felt myself falling through and I watched as he cackled. That was when I saw the message. My vision blurred and everything faded away. I screamed.

“Matt! Wake up!”

I screamed again and opened my eyes. I found myself back in my room. I wasn’t bleeding or hurting or dying and my dad wasn’t anywhere.

“Matt?”

I looked to find Wade staring at me. He was gripping my arms tightly and he looked scared.

“W-Wade?”

My voice was barely above a whisper. He engulfed me in a hug. I instinctively hugged back, burying my face into his shoulder. My heart was pounding and I was shaking.

We sat there for a few minutes not saying a word to each other. I felt Wade rub my back. I looked up at him.

“Are you okay?” He asked me. I nodded slightly. He let go of me and I rubbed my arms. “What were you dreaming about? Do you remember?” I blinked and rubbed my head.

“You can’t escape,” was all I told him. Wade stared at me, confused. “That’s all I remember.” His eyes widened slightly. I heard my door open. Wade and I both looked over to see my dad staring. Wade stood up and walked out, slightly pushing my dad away. My dad glared at him. I laid back down and shuddered. He walked away, muttering something under his breath.

I curled up into a ball and pulled the covers over my head. I was still shaking. The sound of my dad yelling made me shake even more. I couldn’t make out what he was saying but a part of me didn’t want to find out.

There was a sudden burning sensation on my hand. I looked to see a pentagram lighting up on my hand. I instinctively touched it. Almost immediately, I felt myself falling through the bed. I looked down to see that a hole was slowly opening up in my bed. I gasped as I fell through. If my throat hadn’t already been used up from my previous screaming then I would have used it up for more screaming.

I immediately closed my eyes and braced myself for...something. Really, I expected to fall and hit the ground and pretty much die instantly. Instead, I ended up landing in, well, something. I couldn’t describe it, really (then again, I can’t describe most things but that’s not the point). It was sort of fluffy but also bouncy and very comfortable.

Opening my eyes, I found myself in a room. It looked pretty similar to my room, except it was a lot more dimly lit. Not that I was complaining though. I found myself on the bed. So that’s what I landed on. I sat up, rubbing my neck slightly. Where was I?

The door swung open and I looked up to see Satan standing there. He let out a sigh of relief.

“Satan?” I asked. “What's this? Like, where am I?”

“This is your safe place, Matt,” he told me.

“My safe place?” I asked. He nodded. “Aw, why didn’t you give me this sooner?”

“It wasn't ready before.”

“Oh ok.”

There was silence for a minute or two before Billy came in. He walked over to me with an arm in his mouth. I looked up at Satan when he placed the arm on my lap.

“Remember Billy's owner?” He asked me.

“So it  _ is  _ his arm then.” Satan nodded. I turned back to Billy, who was sitting patiently. “Wait, what do I do? Play fetch with the arm?”

“Yeah.” I picked up the arm and held it above Billy's head. Billy reached for it. I then threw it near Satan (it landed near his leg). Billy ran to the arm, bumping into Satan’s leg in the process. I chuckled slightly. Billy brought back the arm and set it down in my lap. I threw it again.

As Billy and I continued to play, Satan walked off somewhere. I debated whether or not to follow him. Eventually, I decided against it.

I laid down on my bed and beckoned Billy to come on the bed. Billy hesitated at first but eventually, he climbed on. He lay beside me, gnawing on the arm. I gently pat his head before I looked down at my hand again.

So it isn't just for calling? I thought. Unless if this  _ is  _ me calling. Although I'm still unsure how to use it. I mean, I feel like if I press it again, I'll just be sent back and I really don't want to go back.

I stood up and walked to the door. As I looked out, I saw that my door was the last one at the end of a long hall. Wonder what could be in those. Just as I was about to step foot outside, I heard Billy whimper. I turned to him and saw that he was watching me. He whimpered again and crawled over to the edge of the bed. Did he not want me to go out?

I walked back over to him and sat down next to him. He laid down on my lap, whimpering slightly. “What’s wrong Billy?” I asked. He whimpered in response. “Billy?” He crawled off of me and pulled me onto the bed until I sat in the middle of the bed. I stared at him. What was wrong?

At that moment, I heard the door creak open and I turned to see a guy crawling in. He only had half of his body and one arm. I immediately knew who it was. Billy growled at him. He looked up and I immediately looked away from his gnawed face.

“P-Please!” I heard him say. How he was still able to talk was beyond me. “G-Get a-away-”

“Ah, there you are,” I heard Satan say. I continued looking away. I sorta felt bad but at the same time, I knew he deserved it. I heard the guy let out a wail. “Come here, boy. Let’s play fetch.” Billy immediately jumped down from the bed. I heard the guys scream and then there was a thud. Billy scurried out of the room and I could hear the guy screaming. The sound was muffled as Satan closed the door.

“Is it close enough to the real thing?”

I turned to him. “What? The room?” I asked. He nodded. “Yeah, as close as you could get it.” I smiled. “Thanks, Satan.”

He smiled. “You’re welcome, Matt.” I nodded and rubbed the back of my head. Glad to know that I can just come here to escape reality.

“Wait,” I suddenly said. “Does this mean that I can come here and just hang out with you instead of you coming to me? Or no?”

“Well, yeah, you can,” he replied. “I doubt you’d like to come here often, though.”

“Why? It’s my room.”

“Yeah, exactly. You won’t be able to go anywhere else here.”

“Satan, you know I hardly ever leave my room.” He rolled his eyes.

“Yeah, but you’ll probably get bored here easily.”

“Satan I can stare at the wall for three hours straight and have a fun time.” Satan stared at me. He probably thought that I was a weird idiot, more so if he already thought that.

“Alright fine. Just don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

I nodded. “Okay. Can I ask why I can’t go out?”

“That’s a story for another time.” I pouted. He would probably never tell me the reason. Would he care that I would spend the rest of my time contemplating the reason? No, probably not. I was going to do that anyway, though, considering that it was a habit of mine.

Satan walked over to me and sat down on the bed. I heard the sound of the guy wailing again and there were multiple thumps on the door. I could only imagine Billy throwing him around.

“Glad Billy gets his revenge all along,” I said, smiling. Satan nodded, smiling. “Alright, so now what?” He shrugged.

“I doubt you’d want to go back-” I groaned before he could finish his statement.

“Can I just stay here forever?” I asked. Satan shook his head. I groaned again and fell down onto the bed. Satan laughed. I rolled my eyes and buried my face in a pillow. I heard Satan laugh again and the bed shifted. I lifted my head to see that he had laid down beside me.

We laid there for a few minutes, listening to the guy’s screams and Billy continuing to torture him. Would it be bad to say that the screams were actually making me sleepy? I don’t know why they were, but I know that five minutes ago I wasn’t sleepy and now I am. I rubbed my eyes and then I remembered.

“Hey, you never explained this!” I said as I showed Satan the pentagram on my hand. “I don’t know how to use it!”

“You used it earlier,” Satan said, motioning to the safe place we were currently in. I rolled my eyes.

“All I did was touch it. You said I could use it to call you. How though?”

“You say some words, touch the pentagram, boom I’m there.”

“The words being?”

“Whatever you think is suitable.” I blinked. Was he being serious? Like, I could say anything to summon him and it would work? Like anything at all? I smirked and thought of the idea of saying “I’m gonna call the gayest person I know” and I end up summoning Satan. The thought made me laugh and I did. Really loudly and pretty hard. I ended up falling off of the bed from laughed so hard.

As I got back up onto the bed I noticed Satan staring at me. I tried catching my breath but it just ended up with me laughing harder and nearly falling off again. Satan shook his head and pulled me onto the bed.

“I wouldn’t respond to that,” he muttered. At this point, I was gasping for air. The fact that he knew what I had thought made it a whole lot funnier. Although now I could practically feel his glare on me.

“I’m sorry-”

“No, you’re not. You’re not sorry.” That only made me laugh harder. I knew Satan was glaring more. After five minutes of laughing, I calmed down. There was a knock on the door. Satan stood up and opened it. Billy walked in, sitting next to the bed, smiling. He looked very pleased with himself, to say the least. Satan stood beside him. “Had your fun?” Billy nodded. “Alright. I’ll be back.” Satan walked out and I chuckled.

_ Calling the gayest person I know to come back here _ , I thought.

“No!” I heard Satan yell.

“Ha! You still responded to that!” There was silence. I knew Satan knew that I was right but he wasn’t going to say anything. I grinned and turned to Billy. “What do you think Billy? Would that be a good call?” Billy tilted his head to the side.

“No, it would not.”

“Yay, my gay friend came back!”

“Matt, stop it!”

“It’s too late! I’m gonna use that from now on!”

“No!”

“YES!”

“Matt!”

“What is it, my gay friend?”

“Keep going, Matt.”

“What? You jealous?”

“Jealous?”

“That you’re not my only gay friend?”

“Who are you- Jay? THAT MOTHERFUCKER’S GAY?!”

“No! I knew you’d get annoyed by that though.”

“I hate you so much right now.”

“Love you too Satan. And you too Billy.”


	13. Consequences

Apparently, spending time in my safe place affects the real world. Who would’ve known? I certainly didn’t. It wasn’t until Satan reminded me of the real world that I had wondered how much time had passed. He had told me that I had spent five hours in my safe place which meant five hours had passed in the real world. Great. Who knows what's happened since I've left?

Satan told me he would have to send me back soon. I didn't want to leave but I couldn't change Satan’s mind.

And so, within another hour, I was sent back. I fell into reality and I sorta laid there in my bed for a bit.  _ I'm back and I bet no one noticed I was gone. _ I stood up and walked out of the room. The house was quiet.  _ Everyone's probably gone off somewhere. _

I walk into the living room expecting it to be empty but instead, I find Wade on the couch, sleeping. _ Well, never mind what I said about everyone being gone. _

My stomach growled. I trudge over to the kitchen and make myself a burrito. As I start the microwave, I lean back against the counter and run a hand through my hair. I feel as though something's not right. Then again, I always feel like that so it really could just be me.

I hear a shift in the couch and watch as Wade walks in rubbing his eyes. He then freezes when he sees me. The microwave starts beeping and I open the microwave and take out the burrito. It burns a bit but not enough for me to drop it. I turn back to Wade, who is still frozen in place.

“What?” I ask him. His eyes grow wide before he runs over and hugs me. I stiffen.  _ Why is he doing this?  _ I would probably hug him back had it not been for the burrito I was holding. We stood there for about a minute or two before he finally let go.

“Where have you been?” He asks.

“What do you mean?” I ask him.

“You've been gone for six hours, Matt. Six. We couldn't find you anywhere so we thought you had run away or something.” I bit my tongue to hold back a chuckle. Yeah, I could see why they'd think that. I'm hardly ever out of my room and if I am, it's only for certain things.

“No, I did not run away. Obviously.” Wade nodded. “But I've been in my room all day. Like, I woke up an hour ago and I got hungry so I'm out here now.” As I said that I took a bite out of my burrito. Wade looked confused but simply nodded again. “So where’s-?”

“Jamie's out. Mom went to the store. Dad’s...somewhere around here...” We both looked around but saw nothing. Wade walked back to the couch. I followed. As he laid down, he told me,“Oh yeah, Jay came by.”

“W-what?!” I asked. Wade nodded.

“Yeah. He asked for you. I told him you weren't home. He then told me to tell you something about him having to talk to Jason because he was being rude. Something like that, I don't know.”

I groaned. What did Satan do this time? And how the hell did Jay find out where I live?

“Is that all?” I asked Wade. He nodded. I trudged to my room, gnawing on my burrito.  _ Dammit. What the hell did you do Satan? _

I sat on the edge of my bed, unsure of what to do. I wasn't going to call Satan. He was probably busy. I didn't want to go outside but I didn't want to stay inside either.

As I continued gnawing on my burrito, I heard footsteps approaching my door. I braced myself for the yelling that was about to occur.

The door flew open and low and behold, there stood my poor excuse of a father in the doorway. He frowned and walked over to me.

“You're back,” he mumbled. I shrugged. His frown deepened. “Listen here you little shit.”  _ Oh boy, here we go. _ “I never asked for this. For  _ any _ of this. And yet it happened."

“I'm assuming you're talking about having kids?” I asked.

“I'm talking about having you.”  _ Hm, typical. _ I finished my burrito as he went on. “I wanted Wade and Jamie. I did not ask for you.”

“Mistakes happen.”

“You're damn right they do. You're the biggest one I've made so far and that's saying something.”

“How nice.”

“I don't know why your mother keeps you around. You're a pathetic excuse for a son.”

“And you're a pathetic excuse for a father.”

As soon as the words were said, I immediately regretted them. I went wide eyed and just as I opened my mouth to say something, he immediately threw me onto the ground. He then held me down as he punched me repeatedly in the face. He shouted slurs at me and punched me harder with every word he said. I could feel blood streaming down my face and pretty soon I was coughing. In response, he started choking me. I tried prying his hands off of my neck but it was no use.

“I'm going to end this once and for all. I'm going to be free of you and no one will ever know what happened.” My vision grew blurry and it felt like my chest would burst at any moment. He suddenly let go of me and I laid there gasping for air.

I felt someone shake me and almost immediately I started vomiting. I could barely hear my name being repeated by Wade. I coughed more, spilling more blood and vomit on the ground. My body felt numb. Was I even breathing? I was pinned down again and I felt hands close around my neck once more. I fell limp and closed my eyes. _ If this is how I die then just take me. _

  
  


 

A baby was crying. People were talking. A siren was going off in the background. I slowly opened my eyes and looked around. Everything was blurry but I could make out the front door and the tv. I blinked, hoping that would somehow fix my vision. It sort of did but it wasn't really enough.

I tried moving but there was something on me. I looked over and realized there was someone on my stomach. They were crying. I let out a groan and the person looked up. It was Billy. His eyes were red from crying. He stared at me but then realized I was awake and hugged me, yelling out “Matt!” I let out a whimper. I hadn't expected that to hurt. Billy let go and I heard footsteps.

“Matt?” I slowly turned my head to see Wade and Jason beside me. I tried sitting up but let out another groan. “No don't get up!” I laid back down and let out a shaky breath.

“Oh dear god is he okay?!” Wade asked. Jason winced and sighed.

“Yes Wade, he's fine,” he said.

“How do you know?!” Billy hugged me again.

“Billy be careful!” Billy nodded and rested his head on my chest. I winced slightly. “Wade go make yourself useful and make sure he's still tied up.”

“Why don't you?”

“Well I mean, he's  _ your _ dad, so…”

“But Matt’s my  _ brother _ , so…”

“Wade just go.”

“No, you don’t tell me what to do!” Billy let out a whimper and Jason sighed.

“Wade, please.” Wade rolled his eyes and stomped off. I looked up at Jason. He rubbed the back of his head. “So, you almost died. At the hands of him. But I showed up just in time to help save you.”

_ Oh shit _ , I thought.  _ I was so close… _

“Matt, no,” Billy said as he hugged me again. I blinked. Had Billy read my thoughts? I looked up at Jason who just sighed.

Wade walked back into the room. “He’s still knocked out. Happy?”

“Yeah, I am. Are you?” It didn’t take a genius to figure out what Jason was getting at. Wade sighed before looking down at the ground. Jason turned to me. “Well, you’re not going to be able to go to school for the next few days.”  _ Thank fuck.  _ “Yeah, you’re more than likely happy about that. As for now, take it easy.”

“Alright, now leave,” Wade said. Jason turned to him.

“No, I don’t think so.”

“I’m not asking you, I’m-”

“Telling me, yeah I know. But I’m not leaving. And if you want me to leave you’re either going to fight me or persuade me.” Wade sighed in frustration.

“Staying will result in dangerous consequences, Jason..."

“I’m fine with that.” Wade glared at Jason. Jason merely stared.

_ Oh great, this can’t end well. _


	14. So what now?

“Matt?” I heard my mom ask. My door slowly opened and I saw my mom peek in. She noticed me laying on my bed with an ice pack on my head. She gasped. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah,” I mumbled. My mom walked in and stood beside me. “I, uh, heard what happened...Jason and Wade told me about it...Matt, I’m sorry. I-”

“Don’t.” She frowned. “I’m sorry...I just...Don’t wanna hear this now...” My mom nodded slightly.

“Right, right. Understood.” She gently kissed my forehead. “Let me know if you need anything, okay? Well, let me or Wade know.” I gave her a thumbs up. She smiled and pulled something out of her pocket. It was my phone. Man, I hadn’t seen that in a while. She handed it to me. “Here. I know it’s been a long time but I think you need this.” I nodded. And with that, she walked out of my room.

So, to catch you up on what’s happened, my dad attacked me a few more times, Satan and Wade somehow saved me, and about a few hours later my mom and Jamie come home. Luckily, my dad was passed out on the couch so it just looked like he was sleeping. So now he’s in their room sleeping and I’m here kinda dying. But that’s okay.

Anyway, moving on.

I picked up my phone and examined it. It didn’t  _ look  _ damaged but something told me my dad had tried tampering with it. I slowly leaned over the side of bed, wincing slightly. I stared at the underside of my bed.

_ I know it’s here somewhere,  _ I thought as I held my hand out. I gasped as Billy’s hand grabbed mine. He crawled out, my phone charger in his mouth. He sat in front of me and offered the charger to me. I hesitantly took it from him.

“Thanks,” I said as I plugged the charger in and charged my phone.

“You alright?” I heard Satan ask. I turned around to see him standing there, arms crossed.

“You’ve asked me that so many times now.” Satan shrugged. “Yeah dude. I’m fine."

Satan walked over to me and sat down on the edge of my bed. Billy rested his head on my bed.

“So now what?” I asked. Satan didn’t say anything at first. He just stared at Billy, presumably lost in thought. I coughed a bit which immediately caught his attention. I stared at him, waiting for a response.

“What do you want me to say?” I shrugged.

“Anything, really.”

“Okay, Jay’s on his way here.”

“WHAT?!”

“What? You said to say anything so-” I immediately got out of bed and made my way to the door. “Woah! No you don’t!” Satan immediately pulled me back into bed. “Look buddy, I tried to stop him but he is insistent on seeing you.” I groaned. Satan placed the ice pack back on my head. “Just give up. He seems very determined to be your friend.”

“Yeah, I know.”

At that moment, I heard a the front door open and Jay’s voice flooded in.  _ Jeez, right on cue.  _ There was the sound of loud footsteps, then nothing. Satan and Billy immediately jumped behind my bed. My door swung open and I saw Jay sitting there with a grin on his face. Beside him stood a very annoyed looking Jamie.

“Matt! You’re okay!” Jay exclaimed as he walked in and stood beside my bed. Jamie rolled her eyes and walked off. “What happened?”

“That’s none of your business,” Jason said as he sat up, glaring at Jay. Jay’s expression dropped.

“Oh,  _ you _ ,” he said. There was an eerie silence and I could practically  _ feel  _ the tension in the air. I glanced between them, wondering how this would play out. After a minute of silence, I guess Billy couldn’t take it anymore, so he stood up and hugged me while saying my name. I gently pat his head. “Oh, I didn’t realize you had your younger brother with you.” Jason rolled his eyes. “Anyway-”

“What are you doing here?” Jason asked him.

“I came by to see if my friend was okay. Is that not allowed anymore or what?” Jason shrugged. Jay turned to me. “So, are you not gonna be at school for a few days?” I nodded slowly. “So that means we won’t be able to hang out as much...” I nod again. I see Jason smile at this. “Well, whatever. I can always just come visit you after school.” Jason frowned and muttered something. “Did you say something Jason?” Jason shook his head. “Jason, how are you still allowed in?”

“I’m not. Thing is I’m always here so there’s no point in trying to prevent me in coming.” Jay made a faint hum sound in response. I don’t think he liked that response.

“Well, whatever.” Jay plopped down onto my bed and smiled. “But, now that I’m here, we can talk and stuff! And hang out! Because that’s what friends do!” Jason narrowed his eyes and whispered something to Billy. Billy immediately got up onto my bed and sat on my lap. I gently pat his head. He laughed. Jay frowned slightly but regained his composure. “Anyway, yeah!”   
“Yeah...”   
  
  
  


After two hours of Jay talking about everyday things, he got a call from his mom (she’s a really nice lady) who told him he had to come home. And so he left, leaving me with Satan and Billy.

“That was torture,” Satan muttered as he leaned against the bed. I rolled my eyes.

“Be prepared for this for the next few days, buddy. It’ll only get worse.” Satan groaned and slammed his head into the bed. I chuckled. “So now what?” Satan sighed and stood up.

“I gotta go back and ready Jay’s coffin.”

“Satan-”

“Sorry Matt but he is gonna get on my nerves and once he does, he’s going straight to the coffin.”

“Oh geez.” Billy got down from the bed and walked into the closet, waving slightly at me before disappearing.

“I’ll see you tomorrow. Or later, I don’t know.” I nod and Satan disappeared into the closet.

I lay down and rub my head and neck. They still hurt (obviously not as much as earlier but still). I was kinda glad that this was an excuse I could use to skip school for a few days. That was really the only good thing to come out of this.

But as of now it was time for me to “rest” (which is really just me staring at the ceiling until I find something better to do). And that is going to start right now.


	15. Something Wrong

Being in constant pain is what I always imagined hell to be like. Since Satan confirmed this, I came to the logical conclusion that I was currently in hell.

Just kidding!

About being in hell, not the constant pain.

Two days had passed. Luckily I hadn’t missed much of anything for school (not that that mattered, but still). Jay had tried to visit me but my mom wouldn’t let him (“It’s got nothing to do with you sweetie, I promise. I’ve prohibited Jason from seeing him as well. Matt needs his rest, otherwise he won’t be able to heal.”) That didn’t stop her from giving him my phone number though. And boy oh boy did he spam me a lot. Honestly, I don’t see how she expects me to get any better with this guy constantly spamming me.

Although, he wasn’t the worst one. After what happened, Wade’s been keeping a close eye on me. He won’t leave for school until he knows I’m okay and dad’s out of the house. Then throughout the day, he’ll send me texts asking for updates. Then the second he gets home, he’ll insist on staying in my room, regardless if I want to be alone or not. It’s like he’s gone full overprotective mode (which, let’s face it, he  _ has _ ).

This has got me thinking though. Yeah, I know I think a lot anyway but with no school it’s making me think more. Things used to be so...simple before I summoned Satan. Okay, maybe simple wasn’t the right word to use but you get what I mean. I wasn’t constantly being checked on, no one gave a shit about me other than mom, no one really knew about me. I’m not saying that everything was better before but I’m also not saying everything has gotten better after (some stuff has, other stuff hasn’t).

The point I’m trying to make is that something big had to happen in order for my life to change. Yes, summoning Satan is “something big”. Whether Satan’s sheer will to change people or Satan’s presence was what changed everyone is anyone’s guess, really. Then again, there’s a possibility that Satan had nothing to do with it and everyone decided to change at the same time I summoned him. But I think the possibility is slim.

There was a knock on my door. I yelled “Come in!” and in came my mom with some yogurt.

“How are you feeling Matt?” she asked, sitting beside me. I shrugged.

“Better.” She nodded a bit, probably trying to figure out if my response was genuine or not (which it kinda was).

“I know you’re probably tired of yogurt...” I shook my head and reached out for it. She smiled a bit and handed it over. If there was one thing good about this, it was the yogurt. I don’t know why but I always liked yogurt (probably more than I should) so this wasn’t the worst thing (especially since we had more than one flavor of yogurt).

As I opened the little container, mom handed me the spoon. I took it from her and noticed the sad look in her eye. She probably still felt bad about my situation, which was expected. Although, sometimes I can’t help but feel like she just kinda lets this happen. Like, she  _ knows  _ that my dad hates me and that he will do literally  _ anything  _ to get rid of me. I still remember what he told me...

_ I don't know why your mother keeps you around. _

I ate a spoonful of yogurt and gently nibbled on the spoon, trying to think of something else. But I couldn’t. What’s worse is that those words echoed through my head every time she passed by my room. My dad had a point (and I hate it when he has a point). I didn’t get why my mom bothered keeping me around, either. At this point, I would’ve probably left my kid off with a relative or at least tried to separate from whatever was causing them problems. I just didn’t understand why she couldn’t.

Unless if, of course, my dad wasn’t letting her leave (which is plausible). But I’d never actually seen him smile at her once nor have I ever seen them actually get along...

“Matt?” my mom asked.

“Hm?”

“I know you’ve probably heard it a lot at this point-”

“Broken record?” I asked as I took another mouthful of yogurt. She smiled and shook her head.

“I would say no but...it seems very likely.” Her smile slipped. “I’m sure by now you know that I’m sorry.” I nodded. “I just...don’t understand.” I ate another mouthful of yogurt and did my best to make a confused face. She sighed. “I don’t understand why your father is like this...”

I bit the spoon.

“It’s just...he was never like this with Wade or Jamie. He had always wanted kids and when Wade and Jamie happened he was always so caring and loving...”

_ I did not ask for you. _

Another spoonful of yogurt.

“And then with you he just...turned so cold...”

_ Mistakes happen. _

“It’s like he regretted having kids. He just became an entirely different person and I just don’t understand how...”

_ You're the biggest one I've made so far and that's saying something. _

I gently stabbed at my yogurt cup. It was empty. I set it down and noticed my mom had buried her face in her hands.

“Matt, I’m so  _ sorry _ !” she sobbed. She trembled and I could very faintly hear her shaky breath. I pulled her into a hug and she buried her face into my shoulder. She sobbed some more and I gently rubbed her back. We stayed like this for a while and I just kinda let her get it all out. Eventually, she pulled away and rubbed her eyes.

“You should probably get cleaned up,” I told her. She nodded and gently placed a kiss on my forehead before walking out. I threw the cup of yogurt against the wall and watched as it bounced on the floor and stopped right beside my bed.

  
  
  


By the time Satan had come to visit, I was busy writing in my journal. I hadn’t written anything in it for a while but I had figured now would be a good time to start (especially since I had all this free time on my hands).

I had only noticed Satan when he sat down on my bed. Even then, I merely glanced up at him and mumbled a ”hello” in his general direction.

“Something wrong?” he asked. I shook my head, knowing very well that saying something would just result in him becoming my therapist (and by that I mean he’ll try to “figure out my problems”). I asked for a friend, not a psychologist.

Albeit, Satan was not convinced.

“Something’s up,” he insisted. “I can sense it.” I shrugged. He gently pulled at my journal. I gripped it and stared at him. “Please tell me what’s wrong.”

“Nothing is wrong.” Satan pouted. “Can I please continue writing?” He glanced down at the journal. I tried pulling it out of his hands but he pulled it back. “Satan, come on.” He didn’t say anything. I sighed and let it go.

He blinked before setting it down on the bed and turned to me. He scrunched his eyebrows. As he opened his mouth to say something, my phone buzzed. I leaned over and grabbed it.

Of course, it was a text from Jay.

“Ugh, seriously?” I heard Satan mutter.

“Can’t you just drop it?” I asked him as I answered Jay’s text. Satan sighed.

“You already know how I feel about him.”

That I did. That I did.

Billy crawled into the room and nudged me. I gently pat his head and turned to Satan.

“So, how was Hell today?” He shrugged.

“Same as usual, you know.” I nodded. “So are you going to tell me what’s wrong? And I swear if you insist that nothing is wrong-”

At this point, I initiated a glaring contest with him.

“What do you  _ want  _ me to say, Satan? There’s really nothing wrong!” He shook his head and was about to say something when Billy sat in between us (I assumed it was to prevent us from yelling at each other). Satan gently pat him and sighed.

We sat in silence for a bit. I listened as my mom passed my room and made her way downstairs. I wasn’t sure if Satan had picked up on it.

My phone buzzed again and I saw that it was a text from Wade. I frowned as I answered it and turned to Satan.

“How long are you staying?” I asked him. He shrugged.

“I assumed the usual amount of time I stay but if you want me to leave early then-”

“I might need you to stay longer.” He blinked and his eyebrow raised. “I’ll tell you after, just wait.”

And so we did. I heard my mom walk a bit more and she stopped in front of my room. Satan retreated into the closet. Billy followed. He shut the closet door as my mom opened my bedroom door.

“Sweetie, I’m going to have to leave for a bit, okay?” I nodded. She walked over and planted a kiss on my forehead. “I love you darling.” She then walked out of the room and I listened as she walked out of the house.

Satan opened the closet door and looked out at me. I didn’t say anything until I was sure I heard her car leave.

“Satan-”

“I didn’t know your mom was home.” I sighed.

“Satan, you should leave.” He blinked. “You can’t use your power here right now if I’m going to need you later. So please go back. I’ll call you in when I’m sure I need you, alright?”

Satan slowly nodded and bid me goodbye as he disappeared with Billy. I’m sure he was confused, as was I, but I had caught on.

I just didn’t know how to tell him that what just left the house wasn’t my mom.


End file.
